Disclaimer: Characters not mine. Not affiliated with anything surrounding the show.

Hello, Readers! I'm back with a new story. Just before posting this story, I went to ffnet and did a browse for complete Luke and Lorelai stories. I found that my last story from, what, 16 MONTHS ago was only on the second page. There was a time when after less than 24 hours, a story would be completely lost among new posts. That makes me sad. I don't write anywhere near as much as I used to, but I haven't stopped completely. If you still love LL and don't mind reading my stuff, then check back every couple of months or so or throw me on your alert list, and I'll get something out when I can. This stretch was way too long. I'll try not to do that again. Never say never, but a year is crazy.

This story takes place S4, but Luke and Nicole are NOT married. They live together but are NOT married. No Jason. I'm going to ask that you all have some faith in me with this story. Luke emerges intact. I don't want to lose anyone prematurely because they hate what's being done. Rating is M. This story is very long, and I'm sorry for those who really hate when I don't break it up into chapters. I just don't like them very much. I can see how that'd be annoying if you're looking for a place to take a read break, though. But on the plus side, at least it's complete! ;)

Enjoy the read!

The Sock Woman

Wiping drowsiness from his eyes, Luke stopped at the diner door and held the ring of keys up to the outside light. The five keys dangled from the key fob. He pushed aside the Chevy key, the PO Box key, and the keys to his Stars Hollow and Litchfield homes all in favor of the one to his business. He used it to enter.

All was quiet. As was usually the case at three in the morning.

He set the keys on the countertop and stopped himself from sitting. If that happened, he knew that's where he'd remain so, he kept moving.

The walls aided him in getting upstairs, and once there, he went right to his bed and dropped onto his back with a strong exhalation. Shoes, clothes, hat, coat – all still on – Luke closed his eyes for a few hours of sleep.

Alcohol – real alcohol – rarely granted him restful nights, and this night was no different.

The moment he fell under, he leapt from one unsettling dream to the next. Found himself running through dark hallways, peering over one shoulder, then the other, seeing nothing, but knowing enough to keep moving. Heart rate up, adrenaline pumping, sweat pouring, Luke ran from one corridor to the next. A corner, then another corner, a sharp corner, he sped through. Fell twice, scrambled to his feet, and on, he went. Then, suddenly, he was falling with the sounds of laughter all around. His body jerked on the bed, as it always did during those never-ending falls. Before he could wake and discover it was all a dream, the falling ceased. He was instantly transported to a room with a long bright spotlight cast upon him as he stood there motionless. Across the room was William Danes, a grave look upon his face. Luke started to speak but his father requested silence, so he closed his mouth and obeyed. William walked closer, and Luke felt as if the ground was caving in. He looked down only to discover that wasn't the case at all. Instead, his legs grew shorter. He looked around in panic. There was nothing to see in the room of black. He looked ahead to see that his dad was now upon him, appearing to be 100 feet tall as he stared down at him stone-faced.

"Dad?"

He could hear his own voice echoing around him. "Dad!" he said louder. His father gave no indication of having heard him. The laughter returned. A woman's laughter. First gentle, then maniacal. Luke searched the room desperately before plugging his ears and reestablishing eye contact with his father. "Dad!" he yelled again. His father steadily grew, which he knew meant he was steadily decreasing in size. "Daaad!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. William shook his head and turned his back to him. "Dad, where are you going? Dad!" The laughter rose to an ear piercing level, and Luke fell to his knees as he clamped his ears as hard as he could.

As his dad faded into the distance, into the shadows of that long solitary line of light, he spoke his only words, forcing the laughter to break. "I'm very disappointed in you, Lucas. Very disappointed."

Luke no longer cared about the woman's laughter, which returned in an instant. He took his hands from his ears and chased after his father on shrunken legs that carried him nowhere. "Dad! Come back! Dad! I'm sorry, okay? Just come back!"

The light went away in the room, and there was darkness again. Darkness and laughter. Luke ran in circles, not sure of the right direction anymore.

"Dad, where'd you go? Daaad!" More and more laughter. "Shut up! Shut the hell up! Dad, where are you?!" Laughter.

Luke's apartment phone rang, and his eyes shot open.

It took a second to exit the nightmarish dream, and it only took a half second more to remember what had caused such vulnerability to the dream in the first place.

The power of brown liquor.

He reached onto the nightstand and retrieved the very noisy phone. 'Hello' is what he meant to say, but a groan is what came out.

"Luke?"

"Yeah," he answered gruffly. "Who is this? Caesar?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you asleep? Why are you still asleep? It's going on six. What's goin' on?"

"If it's going on six, shouldn't you be on your way in?" he asked wearily.

"Calling to let you know I can't make it in until later. Got a little emergency, so if you're not up, you might want to get up and open. I'm sure Kirk is standing outside the door counting down the seconds by now."

Luke grinded his teeth. Kept berating himself for drinking so much so late. He was already feeling the hangover. And boy, did it suck. "You're supposed to open today," he reminded levelly.

"Yeah, I know. I have something to take care of, though, so I'm calling in a favor."

"No favors. Either you get your ass here and open in the next fifteen minutes or you don't have to worry about coming in anymore at all."

"Seriously?"

"Do I sound like I'm kidding?" He rested his hand on his pounding head.

"Man, Luke." He sighed. "Well, okay, let me go talk to the doctor and at least make sure my grandma will be okay for a few hours. Can I call you back?"

Luke removed his hand. "What are you talking about? What's wrong with your grandmother?"

"She slipped in the driveway this morning and has a little bit of a concussion, so she's in the emergency room."

"A little bit of a concussion?"

"Let me go talk to her doctor, and I'll be right in. Don't be mad, but it'll be more than fifteen minutes before I get there because I had to drive to Greenwich. Sorry I didn't call you sooner, but ya know, my grandma was being transported by ambulance and stuff. It slipped my mind."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Caesar, your grandmother is in the hospital with a concussion?"

"Yeah." Pause. "Did I forget to mention that before?"

"Yes."

"Oh. My bad."

Luke slowly sat up. "Just stay where you are. I'll be fine in here today without you."

"Really? But you said-"

"Forget what I said. Stay with your grandmother. And be sure to give her my best."

He paused. "Will I still have a job tomorrow?"

"Jeez. Yes. Now, bye!" He got ready to hang up the phone but stopped. "And keep me posted. If you need more time, let me know."

"Thanks Luke, you're the best. I'll be sure to do that."

"Alright, talk to you later."

"You bet."

Luke sat in place for as long as it took him to conclude he wasn't at risk for projectile vomiting. He attempted to get to his feet and decided that laying back down would be best.

He didn't close his eyes, but still, his dream returned to his mind. His night returned to his mind. The headache had never left, but with that latter remembrance, it worsened.

After multiple deep breaths, he muttered, "Shower. Shower, clothes, blender." It'd been close to fifteen years since he'd needed to consume his special hangover blend.

Though he wanted nothing more than to push forward and get on with his morning, haunting memories drenched in liquor kept him rooted. Before he knew it, another five minutes had passed with him getting nothing done.

The phone rang again, but this ring came through as a lighthearted jingle. "Damn it." Luke pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his coat and tossed it to the bed without checking the caller ID. That ringing phone gave him the energy he'd been looking for. He stood up from the bed, peeled off his coat and kicked off his shoes while holding his queasy stomach. He quickly left his bedroom and entered the bathroom, attempting to put as much space as possible between him and that phone.

He turned the shower on full blast and drowned out all noises in the next room. Moving to the sink, he leaned tiredly onto the counter and lifted two red-stained eyes to the mirror before him. Got barely a glance in before he lowered them to the drain and moved away. He leaned carefully onto the wall as he unbuttoned his jeans, slid the zipper down, and pushed them down his legs. With just his black boxer-briefs and a flannel remaining, he started on the buttons of his flannel. That took effort. The smell that floated up from that fabric wasn't his. The scent that hit his nose was sweet like a flower. Something that was made to make a man fall victim is what made Luke fall to his knees at the toilet bowl. Finally, the battle was lost. Vile, bitter liquid assaulted his taste buds and made him remember that he hadn't eaten a thing since the morning before. Eyes burning, throat scorching, ears stinging, nose running, his body attempted to relieve itself of all the waste he'd thoughtlessly contaminated it with the night before.

With no more to give, he rested his head on the toilet seat.

The faint sound of the landline phone came through to him.

"For the love of god." He struggled to his feet, took off what was left of his clothes, and stepped in the shower. Put his head directly under the spraying jets of water, appreciating the way the water filled his ears making him deaf to the world.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

"Luke! More coffee!"

"Me too, please!"

"Got any poppy seed muffins back there? The bran is a little stale today!"

"Luke."

"Luke."

"Luke!"

Luke looked up from the cash register at the semi-packed crowd. Everyone calling him, needing something. It was all so much. But he ignored the melee. Got to them when he got to them. It was taking all he could do to keep moving, and yelling and barking just wasn't in the cards. They were the very least of his concerns.

Physically, he was better. The puking episode coupled with his hangover concoction brought him from about an eight down to a four. And a half.

He was in the middle of filling mugs when his cell phone started vibrating his back pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the ID. It was Nicole.

"You want more, too?" he asked another patron. At seeing a nod, Luke poured coffee into yet another mug and then one more before he walked the coffee pot back to the machine. With the phone gripped tightly in his palm, he headed toward the curtain with his head lowered. The second he got back there, he flipped the phone open to answer, but the ringing stopped. Voicemail. Again.

"Jeez," he whispered.

Luke grabbed hold of the railing and lowered himself to the stairs. His thumb hovered over the buttons. He needed to call Nicole back because he hadn't spoken to her in half a day. As a person in a relationship, he needed to call his partner back.

His finger hovered there, and then he traced the keys. He shut the phone, opened the phone, traced the keys some more. He eased the phone shut again, and held it with both hands as he thoughtfully twirled it and stared at the floor.

He heard the diners talking and laughing, and it seemed strange to hear laughter when he felt so numb and angry inside.

"Hey, where's Luke?"

Luke's eyes went to the curtain that hid him from the general population. Lorelai's voice was never hard to identify.

"Not sure," Lane answered. Luke rolled his eyes, kicking himself for not letting Lane know he was stepping off for a second. "He may have gone upstairs. He should be down in a minute."

"Awesome. I'll wait for him before I order, if you don't mind. I'm feeling extra naggy this morning, and I'd hate to overwhelm the innocent."

"No, I don't mind at all. One less customer I have to suck up to."

Luke shook his head and dropped it lower. This wasn't really a morning for Lorelai. She was a great friend of his. The best. Sometimes, it felt…the only. But on this morning, he couldn't deal with the questions and the jokes. Not to mention those intense blue eyes reading every piece of body language and pitch. She was so keen and intuitive, and rarely let up until she got answers. She wasn't as easy to ignore as everyone else was.

Today was so not the day for Lorelai.

Unfortunately, for him, with one man down, he couldn't very well just hide out all morning, so he got up and exited the stairway.

He looked instantly to Lorelai. She was all bright and glowy with her ever present mug glued to her lips. She spotted him over the rim and smiled with her eyes while still chugging. One finger went up to him as she went on recharging herself.

Luke slogged over to the coffee machine, his unofficial preferred spot to be. "Try not to choke," he warned.

She finally stopped, breathed, and took another delicious sip.

"Mm, taste-ehhh."

"That coffee is way too hot to drink like that. One of these days, you're going to burn your tongue off."

"Not a problem. I actually keep a spare in my purse. What you're looking at here…" She stuck out just the tip. "…Is the third one. Grab a mirror, look in the back, and you'll see the Made in Taiwan label."

He shook his head as he located his pad. "What'd you do, recycle the rest?"

"Nope. They're buried with Cinnamon."

"Ah."

She grinned while looking at his expressionless face. "Get it?"

"Sure. Cat's got your tongue. Clever."

The smile settled across her lips. "Tongues," she emphasized. "Plural. Remember there were two." He nodded, eyes down. She took him in calmly before reaching for her mug again. "So, good morning to you."

"Good morning to you, too."

"You sound awfully chipper today."

"Same as always."

"That's true."

With a deep breath, he stuck his pad in his back pocket. "Lane, did Rob call yet?"

Lane, walking past, shook her head. "Not yet."

"Jeez."

"Who's Rob?" asked Lorelai.

"Meat guy."

"Out of meat?"

"Got plenty of meat."

She snickered. "So, do you just want Rob to come over so you can see if you deserve the title more?"

Luke looked down at her. "People are eating, okay? Please keep that in mind."

"Sorry."

"Sure."

"But seriously, why's Rob coming if you have all the meat you could ever need or want?"

With a sigh, he cocked his head and looked at her. With a smile, she cocked her head and looked right back at him. "Dropped off too much ham. Not enough salami. He's coming to rectify that. Anymore questions?"

"One more."

"Awesome," he followed sarcastically.

"This hangover you're battling, how much is it kicking your ass right now?" she asked with a soft chuckle.

Luke blinked in shock. He knew she was good at picking up on things, but there was just no way…

She pointed with her eyes. "Tomato juice, bananas, honey... I know you're a weird eater, but I know a hangover blend when I see it." She looked back to him after he'd snuck a look over near the coffee machine to confirm he had, indeed, left those items in plain view.

He lowered his eyes and found a rag.

"So, tough night?"

"Somewhat."

When no questions followed that answer for many seconds, he looked up to find her staring at him. Doing that reading thing that he was afraid she'd annoyingly start to do.

Today was so not the day for Lorelai.

"You want something to eat?"

"Always. Waffles, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and eggs will do."

"You got it." He called the order back to the kitchen and turned back to face what he knew, was going to be more questions. Lorelai didn't disappoint.

"Did you forget that last night was a school night?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he said immediately.

She nodded her understanding and looked into her mug thoughtfully before returning attention to him. "You're okay, though. Right?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" He moved down a bit to talk to a lady about a table that had just opened up. One that was way more suited for her and her infant than the stools were. An infant who, thankfully, had enough decency to be asleep and quiet.

Lorelai's eyes followed him as he talked to her and as he instructed Lane to turn over the table. With no immediate duties, he looked to Lorelai once again, and wondered why he hadn't just gone to clear the table, himself. At least that would have given him a task.

She smiled, asking with her eyes if he was ready to continue. But she didn't need the affirmation. "Your question was 'why wouldn't you be okay'," she reminded. "To answer that, you probably have the highest tolerance for beer than anyone I've ever known, so I'm guessing you were drinking something stronger, which really isn't your thing. So, now I'm wondering if there's something that inspired that. Or if there was a party that I wasn't invited to, in which case, a hissy fit is totally in the works."

Luke closed his eyes. Wished for once that Lorelai had been running late and hadn't found time to drop in for breakfast and conversation. For once, he actually wanted that to be the case.

"Lorelai…" he murmured.

"I know the questions aren't helping the hangover. Hangovers are better spent with cold towels, bottles of water, Tylenol, and silence. I'm very familiar with the process. But I need you to make an exception because I'm a very caring friend who's worried. I'm awesome that way. See the worry line wrinkles? Save me from the wrinkles, Luke."

"You're right. The questions aren't helping," he said, ignoring her final words. "And what I said before, I meant it. I don't want to talk to you," he said carelessly. He realized what he'd said and fixed it before even a second had passed. A second that still caused a reaction in Lorelai's eyes. "Or anyone, I mean." She showed appreciation for the clarification.

Luke looked out at the diner. Recalled all that he wished to forget. "I just want to get through this day," he ended with resignation.

Lorelai studied him further.

Feeling exposed and frustrated, Luke responded. "Jeez, Lorelai, stop looking at me like that. I'm fine." Still, he knew that wasn't the end.

She pondered her next direction while appearing compliant. Made the mistake of locking eyes with Luke, though, and at his stony contact, she realized she was probably busted.

"What?" she asked with wide childlike pupils.

"Drop it," he said evenly.

"Drop what?"

"Drop it."

"Oh that! Sorry, can't."

His eyes widened. "Can."

"Won't."

"Will, damn it!"

She laughed. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh. That was actually…very…demanding."

"Jeez."

"We can talk, Luke. We talk all the time."

"We argue all the time."

"We banter. And we talk. We're friends, and we can talk about the serious stuff, too."

"I told you I'm fine, and I'm fine, so let it go."

Her reply was quick. "Fine. You win. I let it go; it's gone. I dropped it twenty miles back. Ditched it."

"You haven't let anything go." He rolled his eyes. "You know what? This is ridiculous. I'm not doing this with you."

"Doing what?"

"Lorelai!"

She sighed and dropped the act. "You're right, I haven't let it go. It's right here. Iron grip, no freedom in sight." She pointed him out. "But something's up, and I can't try to fix it when I don't know what it is."

Luke looked around to see who else thought she was out of her mind. No one else cared about their conversation. He returned focus to her and just looked. He could feel emotions building. Anger mostly. But his mood was crappy; his thoughts and memories were relentless, and all of that played a large part. The lightheartedness and tolerance had disintegrated, and it was official: Lorelai was getting under his skin. He needed her to back off before he made things worse by adding a ruined friendship to his day's regrets.

"You really think you can fix something...when you have no idea what it is you're fixing. You're telling me that you're that naïve?" he asked calmly.

She sat on that for seconds. Stared back at him and saw the underlying contempt that, depending on her response, would easily unleash whatever was haunting him. She went long enough without talking to where Luke continued. When he didn't explode all over the place, Lorelai realized that her silence there had probably been for the best.

"I know you're…great." He gestured at her. Said what he said genuinely, but it wasn't meant to flatter. "You are, and I know that. But I'm not some kid with kid problems. It's not okay that you'd come in and offer to just clean up everything like you assume it's that easy. It's insulting." He let those words settle. "I know you mean well, Lorelai, but I can handle my own problems. If something's bothering me, just let me handle it. I'm a big boy, okay?"

Calming down, he met her eyes. She was composed and receptive and though not fully deserving of his criticism, showed not to be the least bit put off. Looking at her, he felt bad. Thankfully, Lorelai wasn't someone who would punish him and banish his friendship over ill moods and grouchy flare-ups.

With more to say, he still couldn't let up. His tone was kinder. Not kind…but kinder. "If you think something's up, let me know you're here. To listen. That's all." His jaw flexed. "Don't offer to clean up stuff that has nothing to do with you. Especially when you have no idea how bad it is."

There was silence for a very long moment.

Lorelai came in with caution. "Okay, I heard you. And I'll officially…put this on the table," she began carefully. "I'm here if you want to talk."

Luke looked down.

"Order up!"

He glanced at her before turning to retrieve the order, which happened to be hers. He set it in front of her. "Need anything else?"

He avoided looking at her, but she didn't avoid looking at him. "Luke?" She touched his hand that lay on the counter and lifted it immediately when he jerked as if she'd burned him. She brought in her lips, hid a tiny smile. With hands out, showed she wasn't dangerous.

Luke took a breath and backed away. "Yeah?" he answered easily.

Lorelai wrapped her hands around her mug and moved past it. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes," he hissed. "I heard you."

"Okay, just making sure."

"Can I go now?"

"Sure."

She watched him turn and walk away with haste. After minutes of eating quietly without her daily Luke interaction, which somehow made her food taste blander, she pulled out her planner to confirm some work-related things. Work-related things had never been her focus in the diner before.

Someone came inside, and the bell announced them. With the busy hour, Lorelai had no plans to turn and look. The door was opening and closing every few minutes without fail, and she refused to let, even, her predilection toward people-watching put her at risk for a neck injury.

"Luke?"

At the voice, she turned. Saw Nicole. An unhappy Nicole with an unhappy tone.

Lorelai turned attention to Luke the very next second. He was pouring coffee in the lobby. He stopped mid-pour, jarred by the unexpected presence. His wide eyes went to Nicole, and the first word out of his mouth was her name. Whispered. And then came a very uncomfortable look that Lorelai couldn't help but notice.

Nicole took a heavy breath and moved away from the door. That pissed off look turned into a look of concern as she approached him. As if seeing him made her a lot less angry.

"Why haven't you answered the phone? I've called you a hundred times, Luke. Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"

Luke shied away from her eyes for only a few brief seconds before he forced himself to look at her. "Sorry, Nicole. I've been busy," he answered in a tired but respectful tone.

He took a brief scan of the diner, all the people. His eyes hit Lorelai and there was an instant and unintentional double take before he sighed with true weariness and looked back to Nicole. People had taken notice when Nicole came inside calling out to him the way she had, but the following scene wasn't dramatic enough to hold their attention. They tuned out just as quickly as they had tuned in. Sometime between Nicole's entry and now, Lorelai had faced the counter again. Appeared to be tuned out like the rest of the crowd, but Luke knew better. He'd had a moment of dread when his eyes landed on her and he realized she'd be witness to the scene currently taking place.

"Busy," Nicole parroted. "Busy working?"

He nodded. Half his mind there, the other half somewhere far, far away.

"You weren't working every time I called you, Luke."

He nodded at the truth of that. "I know," he replied kindly. He finished pouring coffee into the customer's mug and with a point to the counter, he told Nicole he had to get back. He headed over, and she was quick to fall in behind him. He wasn't surprised. Only shook his head as he felt her on his heels close, unwilling to give him space. If he was flustered, she wanted to keep him flustered. He set the pot on the base and held his grip on the handle. "Let's go upstairs," he said quietly. She stood close enough to have her breasts brushing his arm, so he was confident she'd hear him and thankful at being able to speak low enough to where she'd be the only one to hear.

"I don't have time to go upstairs." Her voice was turning unkind again, and while she wasn't yelling, she didn't see the purpose of speaking as quietly as he had. "See, I had to get in my car and drive all the way here when I was supposed to be at the office half an hour ago. Why, you ask? Because my live-in boyfriend didn't come home or bother to pick up the phone all night. So, no, I don't have the luxury of time right now, Luke."

He clenched his jaw and looked over at her. "I'm not going to talk to you in a diner full of people," he said with strained calmness.

"Who said anything about talking? Talking comes later. Right now, I'm extremely frustrated, and honestly, if you were any other guy – any other guy – I'd have reached some pretty well-deserved conclusions by now." He looked so resigned in an instant that she couldn't help but soften her voice. "But you're not. So, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm willing to hear you out. Here. Not upstairs. I'm not requesting a conversation. I just need to know where you were all night. It only takes a second to tell me that."

He waited a beat. He fucking hated this.

"I was upstairs. I slept upstairs."

"All night?" she asked without accusation.

"Most of the night." He clenched his jaw. That was a lie. "Or some of the night," he corrected tightly.

He looked back at Lorelai, and she was looking into her plate, moving her eggs around with her fork. He didn't know if she could hear. He was pretty sure she could. She appeared to be concentrating.

"Where were you the rest of the night? The first part of the night, I guess. I called the diner an hour after closing and no one knew your whereabouts. Your truck was gone. Informative crew you've got working here."

"You think I would have told them to lie for me?"

She sighed in apology. "No. I don't."

He glanced back at Lorelai again. Looked down with a shake of his head. "The fight was heavy on my mind. I was tired. Just needed to get out and clear my head. Went to a bar to do that."

"A bar?"

"Yeah."

"Which one?"

"Nicole."

"Which bar did you go to, Luke?"

"The one I always go to. How many bars are there in this town?"

"That bar closes at midnight," she stated.

Luke had yet to turn his body away from the coffee machine. He looked down at the pot. Looked over at a few of the items intended for his morning-after symptoms.

"Yeah, it closes at midnight," he confirmed. "I didn't stay until then. I went and crashed."

"Where?"

"I crashed."

"Where?"

"Somewhere I could sleep it off."

"Are you really going to make me ask again?"

Luke's eyes involuntarily went back over his shoulder at Lorelai. She had laid her fork down and was staring into her plate as she leaned on the counter.

His already heavy heart got heavier.

"Look, I know you think I ignored your calls, but I didn't," he told Nicole in a firm voice. "I wouldn't do that. You didn't call my cell until something til six this morning—"

"I never call it after a certain time at night because you turn it off, and you don't turn it back on until you're about to open. I know that. If you sleep here and I need you, I call your apartment. Why is this news to you? After calling the diner, I waited an hour, waited for you to get back from god knows where, then I called the apartment phone. Five times until two in the morning."

He kept going where she'd cut him off. "I heard my cell ring this morning but I didn't check to see who was calling. If I had checked it and seen your name, I would've answered. I don't ignore your calls."

"So, why didn't you look?"

"Because I figured it was you," he answered honestly. "And I didn't want to talk."

She gave him a look of disbelief at his complacent tone. Said as if he was saying something she should fully understand.

"I'd been calling you all night and you didn't want to check if it were me? What if it was an emergency? Who does that?"

"Jeez," he muttered. He could hear chatter lessening behind him, so he figured he and Nicole were drawing attention. He didn't dare confirm it. "I didn't know you'd been calling all night, Nicole. I went to shower, came out, checked my answering machine, and only then did I see that you'd been calling all night. None of the messages were pressing, so no, I didn't call back right away."

"You didn't call at all," she was sure to remind him. "And my needing to know if you were safe wasn't pressing to you?"

"My cell was on all night. All night. If you needed to reach me, you could've called me."

"The one time I did, you ignored it, and now you're telling me I should have called it."

"If I saw you calling, I would have picked up the phone."

She shook her head and stepped back. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Not only that, but it's quickly becoming a discussion, heading toward an argument, and—"

"We definitely don't need to go back down that road," he finished.

She stared up at him for a long silent moment. "I didn't start that argument yesterday, Luke."

"Well, I sure as hell didn't start it."

Nicole brought her lips in. Folded her arms over her chest and lowered her head with closed lids appearing to restore serenity. She met his eyes again and walked close enough to where she could say the words quietly.

Way too much drama for one day.

"I never thought I'd have this conversation with you. Not you, Luke. You're good. And you're honest." She paused and braced herself. "Where were you last night?"

He'd turned a bit at her advance. They were close in a very intimate discussion kind of way. Luke blinked and brought his focus from Nicole and over to Lorelai again. Lorelai was still looking at her plate, but she looked up at the pause in their exchange. Met Luke's eyes.

Luke saw a sadness there that he wasn't entirely familiar with. Not on her.

Before Lorelai could look away, Nicole finally decided to follow Luke's line of sight. She and Lorelai locked eyes, and for a moment, Lorelai just looked at her expressionlessly. Then, she saw the squint, the consideration, the light bulb, the shock, the gasp, the anger, the pain. Lorelai was slow to catch on, but once she did, she pulled away from her lean on the counter, hands out, requesting an immediate end to those thoughts.

The only word that she could think to say was no. So, she said it until she ran out of breath. Said it until Nicole's expression went from anger to uncertainty to annoyance.

Luke jumped in with words of reason. "Are you kidding me?! Do not think what you're thinking, Nicole! Don't even say it out loud! What the hell?"

Lorelai had finally found some real vocabulary, and it was slowly coming together in ways that'd help clear her good name.

"I'm..customer..I'm.. coffee..and..and..and innocent conversation topics..I..I mean last night I talked on the phone with my kid while watching Charlie's Angels Full Throttle. I'm innocent, I swear. I mean, it's been forever since I've even… I-I-I get fitted for my penguin outfit next week. I cleared my schedule." She grasped her planner desperately. "See, planning of the sainthood!"

Nicole dismissed Lorelai. Showed little apology for the accusation because Luke and Lorelai's friendship, however innocent, would never truly sit well with her.

"You were right to say we needed to talk about this in private," she admitted closely to Luke.

"Thank you," he said in relief.

"I can't do that now."

"I understand."

"I really have to go." Luke nodded at her words. She continued to look at him as if she wanted to say so much more. She was very unsettled. Being civil and diplomatic while her blood boiled like lava. She wanted to be okay and not be consumed by relationship drama when she had cases to prepare for, but she was struggling.

Men cheated. That wasn't news to her. She'd been through it. Simply dumped the no-good son of a bitch and got on with her life. Up until her rotation had come with client, Taylor Doose, men had been recreation. Her career got her full heart. Up until that damn day where she came in a small town diner in search of a signature...

Luke didn't know what to say at her long and uncomfortable stare-down. "Well, I guess, um…"

Nicole walked up to him again. She kept her arms folded over her chest. Couldn't drop that defensive stance even if she wanted to.

"I love that you're so honest. Hold onto that. When we talk later, hold onto that. That's the best chance we have at getting through whatever it is we end up having to get through." She said all of that while looking at his shoulder. Finally lifting those blazing mad eyes to his, she found that she couldn't even maintain the contact. She lowered her head to her feet. "Okay?" she ended quietly.

Luke stared at her lowered head. Gritted his teeth. What an unreal scene. "Okay," he whispered.

Nicole stiffened, shook her head, took a short breath and brought her lips to his. Through his shock, he participated. She pulled away. "I love you," she said genuinely. Appeared to be kicking herself as she said it, but she said it. Was able to meet his eyes as she awaited the response.

"Me too," he said as he confusedly searched her eyes.

She nodded then turned to leave. Her eyes remained on the floor as she moved toward the door. She avoided looking at anyone or anything.

"I'll call you later," she called back to Luke without turning. "It'd be nice if you checked the ID." She opened the door and walked out.

Luke felt numb. A whole new level of numb.

Talking slowly picked back up in the areas where it had ceased. Lane scurried around Luke, doing extra duty since he wasn't doing much of anything. As had happened too many unwarranted times throughout his and Nicole's interaction, his eyes rose to Lorelai.

She was digging through her purse. She pulled out one bill at a time until she had more than enough to cover her barely touched meal.

"Um, how much do I owe you?" she asked distractedly while straightening the money on the countertop.

His eyes dropped to her plate, and it took a moment for words to come. He was so unbelievably numb.

"You haven't eaten much," he noted.

She nodded. Kept her eyes down and kept straightening the bills. "How much?"

He lifted his eyes to her face and wondered if it was just his imagination or if she was avoiding eye contact. "You need to eat some more. Who knows when you're going to slow down enough to eat again."

Lorelai reached for a menu down the counter. She opened it and scanned carefully for many seconds. Found her meal, did the math with the additional meat. "Seven bucks should cover it."

"Lorelai?"

"Hm?" She stacked her wrinkly bills and concentrated on lining them up perfectly.

Luke tightened his jaw. He took a tentative step, and then completed his move toward the counter. He reached up as if to touch her hand, and she dropped the final bill to the stack and removed her hands from the counter area completely. Luke pulled back. Nodded his understanding of the situation. He knew it'd happen. Knew it and it still made him experience such an intense sadness that it took effort to keep standing.

Lorelai still wouldn't look up. She looked down, off to the side of her, down again. "I'm sorry, Luke, can I just…get the bill?" she asked quietly as she failed to find something else to busy herself with.

Luke turned and got the pot. "Don't worry about it; it's on the house," he managed.

She shook her head, no. "I think this should cover it." She stood and reached for her things.

"Coffee to go?"

"No, I'm good."

"Lorelai…"

"I really have to go, but I'll see you later, okay?" She met his eyes for the briefest of seconds and looked away. "Hope you feel better with the…" She pointed to her head signifying the hangover. Said that genuinely.

She didn't bother waiting for his response. Luke watched her walk away at a pace much faster than her usual one. She exited the diner and jogged across the street to her jeep. Started the car and left in a flash.

Lane stopped beside a very still and very in-the-way Luke. "Hey, you okay?"

Nothing. He stared out the window.

"Luke!" she called much louder.

His gaze moved to her absently. Lane took in his vacant expression, his morose air. She sighed. "Why don't you go take a break. Just fifteen, twenty minutes. I'll handle things down here."

She waited to hear objections and a false show of stability. Waited for him to turn down the offer and finally exhibit signs of life as he went on with his job duties. Instead, she got a short, lazy nod followed by a turn toward the staircase.

"I'll just be fifteen minutes," he murmured over his shoulder.

"Okay, that's fine. Take your time," Lane assured as she watched him with concern.

"Miss, coffee, please."

She snapped out of that zone and into the one that would allow her to pay her rent. "Coming up!" she communicated cheerfully. Glancing back at the curtain, she found the area empty.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Nicole called at 2:15pm. Several hours after leaving the diner. Luke answered, of course. He'd had a few hours to think. He told her that they needed to talk, and Nicole told him that was a no brainer. She put him on notice that she'd be free to talk at five. He ignored the biting sarcasm as well as the moment she hung up without warning. She hung up in the middle of him talking. Honestly, it was to be expected.

He brushed it off and back to the crowded diner, he went.

With all the time he'd had to mull, he had concluded that he was upset. Not with Nicole. He understood the wreckage there. Understood and respected it enough to keep frustrations away from wherever she stood. Upset with the situation, yes, but not only that. He was angry with Lorelai. The woman who called herself his friend.

Twenty minutes before Nicole showed up, Lorelai had been forcing her friendship on him. Unyielding at every turn, despite his obvious dissent. Soon as things went left, she didn't hesitate to leave his corner. That didn't sit well with him. Luke didn't have many hard and true rules of friendship, but he was still willing to bet that judgments and desertion weren't high on the list of what makes Grade A BFF's.

He had no plans to check in with her. None. And hated that more than once he'd caught himself eyeing the diner phone with strong urges to use it. Even before receiving Nicole's call, he'd been eyeing the phone. Itching to make a call that should have been a second priority, at best.

The door's bell chimed. "Hey, Luke! I'm here." Caesar came inside and secured the door with a sigh and a smile.

Luke looked him up and down as if he was the one that'd been injured earlier that morning. "I can see that," he followed gruffly. He'd just passed out a couple plates in the diner. With nothing out of place on Caesar, he looked away and started for the counter. "Wasn't expecting you back so soon. Everything okay?"

"Yep. My dad made it up there, and he's gonna be there with her for a few days. Told me to come on back so I did. Grandma's doing good. I bought her a pair of slip resistant shoes before I left," he said with a chuckle. "She'll be alright." He took off his coat. "You guys okay in here?"

Luke rung up an order on the register. "Not too bad," he answered. "You didn't have to rush back, ya know."

"Yeah, I know," he said with a shrug. "But I know you don't like unexpected call outs. Last time I did that, you were not happy. Doubt I'll ever forget that."

Luke peered at him. "Having your best dude friend call me to tell me you would be late because you were about to break record on a video game is not the same as a relative in the emergency room," he stressed.

Caesar looked around. "I was in the other room and heard you yelling on the phone. They heard you in Bangladesh."

Luke didn't show problems with that. "Got my point across, though."

"Definitely."

"Glad your grandmother's okay." He closed the drawer and headed for the coffee pot. "Since you're here, we could use you. Grill's covered, so you gotta work out here."

"Not a problem."

"Alright, go clean up and get ready to work."

"On it."

The phone rang just as Caesar passed by on his way to the back. He snagged it before it could ring again. "Luke's." Luke had moved down the counter and was pouring coffee into cups. "Okay, hold on," Caesar said into the receiver. He extended the phone to Luke. "It's for you, Boss. It's Lorelai."

Luke looked over at him immediately.

There was a flash of elation and hope. Came too fast to stop. Earlier, Lorelai hadn't wanted anything to do with him, and unless she was calling to rub that in, then she had, instead, amended that position. Rightfully. Luke felt relief, plain and simple.

But a second later, he processed. And the light drained from his face as he turned back to his customers. "I'm busy," he relayed flatly.

Caesar chuckled. "For Lorelai? Yeah, right." He laid the phone down and continued his journey with a carefree hum. Luke's head snapped from the wall phone…currently not on the wall but instead lying near the register…and over toward the curtain where Caesar was disappearing.

"Caesar!" he called in disbelief.

"Yeah?" he answered lightly, not bothering to reemerge.

Luke rolled his eyes. "I said to tell her I'm busy!" he yelled.

"Dude, no you're not," was his blithe follow-up from farther away. "Besides, did you not hear the part about me saying it's Lorel-"

"I heard you!" he snapped.

"Hello, people working here," Lane complained as she came to the long phone cord blocking entry to the employee area. "Why's the phone off the hook?" she asked as she picked it up.

"Hang it up," Luke ordered.

She started to bring it to her ear. "But I think someone's on the-"

"Hang it up now!"

"Okay, okay, hanging it up," she appeased with a confused regard. "Sorry Mystery Caller; wish I could say not to take it personally…" she said apologetically, mouth distantly following the phone until it was securely on the base.

She shook her head and continued toward the food window. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Lorelai!" Caesar yelled from the back.

"Lorelai?" she asked in shock. She turned to Luke. "You made me hang up on Lorelai?"

"Yep!" Caesar yelled, again from the back.

Luke stiffened and glared toward the curtain. Caesar, thankfully, was done contributing for the moment. "Will everyone get back to work and mind their own business?!" he barked. He yelled more toward the curtain than toward Lane. Lane always made him think of Rory, and Rory always made him think of kittens. Or something stupid like that. Either way, his tantrums maintained steam only when aimed at Caesar.

"You do realize she's my best friend's mom and also a very big reason why I maintained sanity throughout my childhood… There aren't many ways I can ever repay her for that, but I think a good start would be not to go around hanging up in her face, you know?"

Luke sighed and gave her a look of warning.

"We'll just discuss it later," she soothed quickly before going about her business.

Luke turned his extremely perturbed focus to the customer in front of him. "What'll it be?" he demanded.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Ambling through the aisle at the hardware store, Luke made his way to the familiar super glue shelf. He was completely out, and after the long phone conversation with Nicole, he just wanted to get out and get some fresh air. So, he utilized that workable excuse.

In a few hours, he'd be heading to Litchfield. Alone time with Nicole. Her idea. He was fine with another night apart. To him, more space seemed to be the most appealing idea, but he didn't dare voice that after the day they'd had.

Even though he'd been buying the same kind of glue for years, he fingered the brands. He looked closely at the words on each, but his mind was too preoccupied to take in any of it.

It'd been an hour since the conversation, and still, he wasn't able to rid himself of the surprise he felt. Nicole had been all business when she phoned in at five on the dot. Luke was upstairs, away from eavesdroppers, ready for the knockdown, drag out argument that was sure to come. He provided speedy and honest answers to Nicole's extremely straightforward questions. She listened. Probed for details. Asked repeat questions, to which the same answers were given.

And just like that, she was satisfied. She dropped the detached, lawyer tone and moved on to other subjects, the first being to apologize for her part in the previous night's argument. That was the only proof Luke needed that she was truly okay. He'd exerted himself fully during the confrontation trying to get her to acknowledge his grievances. Even when she was undoubtedly in the wrong, she always argued as if she wasn't. He wasn't in love with that side of her.

He poked at packages of glue before mindlessly swiping the one he always got. He turned and started upfront. He couldn't make peace with how things had gone down. Nicole was so glib. Even seemed relieved once all facts had been laid out. Relieved. As if those horrible things weren't so horrible to her.

Luke flinched as the night before resurfaced. Given the number of shots that he had stupidly guzzled like tea, he had to wonder about the amazing clarity that accompanied that night's events. He remembered every feeling, every thought, every word and touch. It made him sick to remember as vividly as he did.

"Will this be all for you, Luke?"

Luke nodded at the known face behind the register. The store worker had him out the door in a matter of seconds, and Luke hung back on the sidewalk for longer than usual before finally climbing into his truck with no amount of joy.

He returned to the diner and fell back into routine for hours more. The end of the night came around nine for him. Nicole had asked him to be at their Litchfield home for dinner, which generally was between seven and eight since her work schedule varied. However, Luke had the previous night to make up for with his staff. He wasn't going to leave his crew in the lurch two back-to-back nights. To avoid reminders of the previous night, he'd simply told Nicole he couldn't get away that soon, and even after all he'd shared, she understood. He was often understaffed, and she always understood, but even after his confessions, she accepted the excuse faithfully.

Though nine was still an inconvenience, Luke made it work. He went upstairs, stripped off his clothes, and took a speedy shower. Bad habit he couldn't seem to break. He treated his nights with Nicole like a sleepover at a buddy's house where he did as much as he could before he got there. After throwing on more clothes, he stood at the side of his bed stuffing clean clothes in an overnight bag.

The apartment phone sounded. Luke reached for the phone and stuffed it between his ear and shoulder. He already knew who it was. Nicole would probably spend at least the next few weeks calling him every few hours, regardless if he was on his way over or not.

"Hey," he answered. "I'm almost done here. I should be there in forty-five minutes, tops," he assured as he packed things in his bag quicker and with even less order.

"Really? Thanks for the heads up. Gives me time to do away with the curlers, wrinkle cream, and facial hair bleach. I want you to think all this loveliness is God's gift for as long as I can."

Luke stopped packing and moved to hold the phone with his hand. At first surprised, his mood quickly shifted to darkness. He frowned and used his silence to let his feelings known.

Lorelai took in that silence with nervousness. "I, uh, guess I should be thanking my lucky stars that you, Dark Age inhabitant that you are, haven't bought into the hype of the caller ID craze, huh?"

"Why are you calling here?" he asked.

Her tentative smile faded, and she lowered her eyes to her lap. She was at home on her sofa. "You wouldn't take my call before," she answered quietly.

"Yeah, and?" He flinched at his own harshness. He'd have to work on that.

She pushed through. "I wanted to call you and apologize, Luke. For this morning." She stopped there and gave him time to speak, but it wasn't until she started talking again that he decided to contribute by carelessly cutting her off. "I know that I-"

"Look, I'm on my way out, so I don't have time to talk. This isn't a good time."

"Okay. When's a good time?" she followed.

"I don't know."

"Well…how about I just make it quick?" She left no room for a response. "I screwed up today. I screwed up really bad, and I'm sorry. I was a horrible friend to you. We're friends. I definitely consider you that, Luke, and if the shoe were on the other foot, well, I probably would have been walking funny and making unintentional turns, which sucks…as does what I did to that metaphor. But I mean it. If you don't believe anything else, believe that." She thought it positive that she wasn't hearing a dial tone. "All day, Sookie was asking me what was bothering me because I was being weird, and it was because of what I did, how I handled things. I mean, some of it had to do with stupid things going on inside my head, but most of it was guilt, which I definitely deserved to feel. I shouldn't have run out like I did. I don't know why I…" She stopped, sighed. She knew why she'd done it. She just didn't think it was okay that she had. "I'm so sorry, Luke."

Quiet. On both ends but it seemed louder on Luke's.

Lorelai went on, speaking in a soft and somber voice. "You were on your way out. I remember. So, I won't hold you up. I'll be in the diner tomorrow for breakfast and lunch. And probably dinner, if I can stomach a third stint of lethal eye daggers." She chuckled at her joke, not focused on how she laughed alone. "Have a good night." She started to hang up but didn't. "Um, if it's not too much trouble…can you…grunt or sneeze or something to let me know you actually heard all of this and I didn't spend the past couple minutes talking to your nightstand or couch cushion?"

Seconds ticked off. Lorelai knew how stubborn Luke was, so she waited longer.

Finally, he cleared his throat, and she smiled. She prepared herself to hang up on that note, but he spoke up, which was much more than she could have hoped for.

"I'm still pissed at you. Just so we're clear."

She nodded. "That's fine. I get it."

He moved things around in his bag to keep busy as he deliberated. He was grateful that she cared enough to call like she had. No one definitely could dispute the size of her heart. One of the damned things that made it that much harder to remain upset with her.

He dropped his deodorant in the bag and finally lost the battle with the bothersome question. "Aside from guilt, what were the other 'stupid' things going on inside your head?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said other things were bothering you," he clarified with annoyance. It wasn't easy to remain at odds with someone when there was too much talking and clarifying. The carrying on of conversation was bad enough. "Was it unrelated stuff?" he ended gruffly.

Sensitive to his tone, she answered automatically. "Sure," she said. "Unrelated stuff, definitely."

He rolled his eyes. Why he ever thought he could talk to Lorelai without having to really talk to her, he didn't know. "Think I've known you all these years and I can't tell when you're saying something you don't mean?"

Lorelai smiled. "Well, to be fair, there are people who've I've known longer who don't think my acting's all that horrible. In case you didn't know this, people are pretty good at believing exactly what they want to believe."

"Well, unfortunately for you, I'm not one of those people. You gonna answer my question with something other than an ego-stroking lie?"

She stared ahead and went back and forth on what to say. "Okay, I admit it's related. But it's my thing. Nothing you have to concern yourself with. I shouldn't have even touched on it. That wasn't my intention."

"Well, you did. So, are you going to tell me or not? I'm not going to drag it out of you."

"Let's just move past it," she decided. She took a deep breath. "Like I said before, have a good night. You're…headed home, right?"

Luke had busied himself with putting on and tying his shoes. "What are you talking about? Didn't you call me at home?"

"No, I called you at your old apartment…" she replied questioningly.

He sat up straight, rolled his eyes, and moved past that flub. "Whatever. And yes, I'm headed to Litchfield." Her question touched a tender spot. "Why did you even ask me that? Where else did you think I was going?"

"Nowhere," she answered instantly.

He gritted his teeth. He wasn't sure he could handle being this guy. "I've been told I suck at lying. I'm here to tell you, you suck worse. You answer fast like it's a reflex. It's not that different from how you usually talk, except it is different. I notice every time you do it, whether I say something or not. I notice every single time. It bugs the hell out of me, and I wish you would stop. I've known you for eight years, Lorelai. You think I'm stupid? If you don't want to answer, fine, but don't lie."

She was quick to speak. Came in offended. "I wasn't lyi-" The word faded on her lips and she sighed tiredly. If that wouldn't feed his argument, nothing would. "Look, I'm glad you worked things out with Nicole. That's what I wanted to see…" Again the word faded out. Another lie. She didn't doubt that Luke actually could read her better than most. He listened twenty times more than he talked. And he'd been forced to listen to her often over the years. She closed her eyes. "I guess I wanted to be sure you were, you know, appreciating what you have in her and…doing right by her." She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth.

Luke sat on that for a long while, and Lorelai didn't dare speak.

"Appreciating what I have in her," he thoughtfully repeated. "What exactly do I have in her?"

"I don't know," she relented quietly. Officially done saying careless things.

His voice was oddly calm. "You're right about that, Lorelai. You don't know. But for some reason, you're acting like you know pretty much everything, so tell me this. Why do you feel you have a right to an opinion or even a right to be affected in any way when it comes to my relationship?"

"I-I don't have an opinion, Luke."

"Like hell you don't. You have an opinion about everything, and you definitely have an opinion about this."

She didn't know the right thing to say. Didn't know how to proceed, so she just addressed the second part of his claim. "And I don't want to be affected by this."

"Don't want to be?" he questioned.

"Yeah."

"So, you're admitting that you are, then? Even though it has nothing to do with you…"

"I'm sorry you're upset," she said softly. She paused. "What do you say we just talk later? Tomorrow maybe? Because I can't seem to do a whole lot right today, and I'd really hate to make this worse."

Luke took a breath and calmed down. "I'm not going to want to talk about this tomorrow," he stated. "Once it's dropped, it's dropped." There was a lot of truth in that, but getting anything out of him at all was not something many achieved. He took another breath and rolled his eyes. "I'm not upset, okay? I'm just trying to understand what the hell is going on in your head because I'm lost! I have this stuff going on with Nicole right now, and that by itself is a lot. And now, on top of that, I have to figure out what I did to you. You never seemed to be before, but now you're suddenly a fan of Nicole? You a part of her circle? She hurts, you hurt? I don't get it."

She smiled. The poor man was really trying hard to understand. "To be fair, Luke, I don't get it either."

Luke checked the time. Shook his head because Nicole would probably be thinking the worst if he didn't leave very soon. He rubbed his hot feverish forehead. It seemed at capacity. "What's bothering you, Lorelai?" He fought his primary instinct to shut down and push her away for intruding on his life. Fought it because he really did always want to be on good terms with her. Always wanted her in his corner. She was the perfect person to have there.

Lorelai allowed a silence to build that unnerved him.

"Hello?"

"I'm here."

He frowned. "Okay…"

She took a deep breath. "So, um…you…cheated on her?"

His heart pounded faster. Wondered for the umpteenth time how the hell he'd allowed himself to become this guy.

Before too much time went by, Lorelai was speaking again. "You don't have to answer that," she began softly. "It's absolutely none of my business, but I just…" She was conscious of her words. "It's been a process, is all. I know that problems in a relationship are rarely one-sided, and…god, I just wish…I wish so bad that I hadn't been there this morning. It's been a strange hard day." He allowed her time to continue, so she did.

"They tell you not to go around placing people on pedestals, and now I see why. I mean, it's unfair to the people who are up there, of course, but good god…I'm here to tell you, it sucks big time for the person who did the placing once reality hits that hello, that person is human and they're going to make mistakes." She shook her head. "But you know what? Like I told you before, this is my problem. And just so you know, right or wrong, if it came down to a question of who I'd back, it'd never be Nicole."

Only a small silence followed before Luke chimed in with a quiet reminder. "You backed her this morning."

Lorelai felt the pain of his words. His analysis of her actions stung, but hearing sadness in Luke's voice killed her. When had she become a person important enough in his life to inspire such a guarded emotion?

"It wasn't about her," she admitted.

"Seemed that way. She left pissed off, and then you left pissed off. Women unite, I guess."

"Luke, no."

"I get why I'm the bad guy in all this, but it definitely doesn't suck any less." Luke exhaled and went on speaking more strongly. "But you know what? What's done is done. Nothing left to do now but deal with it."

Lorelai stared down. "So, you two worked things out?"

"I think so."

"That's great."

"Yeah," he followed quietly. "She was pretty understanding." All events played in his head. He didn't exactly know how to shut it off. "Guess that makes me lucky, huh?"

Lorelai recalled the pain she'd witnessed earlier in the diner, and Luke's revelation caused more than a little confusion. "So… I guess with her, the bark really is a lot worse than the bite."

"Why do you say that?"

Curiosity won out over all conflicting warnings. "It's just that in the diner…she was…really mad. Which of course is underst—" Eye roll. "Well, you know what I mean. So, I'm just saying that she…must, ya know…really love you to be able to, ya know… carry on with the, um, the thing—the relationship, I mean." She mouthed an 'oh my god' but on, she went. "But I get it!" she said with an awkward tone of enthusiasm. "You can't just go…giving up on relationships, and I know that. So…one would surmise that, ya know, the questions… themselves… don't need to really be there." Mouth open, ready to present more of whatever the hell she was saying, she let loose a fit of laughter.

Her knowledge of Luke told her he was fuming during her idiotic ramble and her laughter would not help. But still, she laughed. She laughed at the possibility that he wasn't mad at all. Laughed at the rare prospect of him smirking and enjoying the insane level of discomfort she was so obviously in. Because stuff like that really did amuse him. And in that moment, that was the funniest thing to her.

She went on without interruption for way longer than she would've expected. When she could talk, she was ready to explain, but Luke was first.

His flat tone let her know that smirking imagery had definitely only been in her head.

"What exactly do you find funny about this?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. I'm…sorry. I'm a moron."

"Jeez, Lorelai. How many personalities do you have?"

"Well, just one. But it likes to wear masks and play dress up. Forgive me, okay?"

"Sure," he mumbled with a roll of his eyes.

"We're friends?"

He sighed. "You tell me."

"Yeah. We're friends," she affirmed quietly.

"Okay, then."

"If I can just say one more thing, Luke."

"I probably need to get going," he replied.

"I know. And I'm sorry for holding you up with my babbling. But just one more thing. Just so you'll know where I stand. Officially."

"Lorelai..."

"I'm harping; I know," she admitted with apology. "But can I say this?" she pleaded with sorrow. "It's important to me that you know my position. Considering how I reacted this morning."

"You're entitled to your opinion, whatever it is, okay?" he stated diplomatically. "You don't have to do this. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't."

"Please? Let me say this, and I'll be done."

"Oh jeez. Fine. Say what you have to say," he relented. The obligatory backing was well intentioned, but it was only so much of it he could take. He almost wished she'd just give her honest opinion of what she thought. It's not like his actions deserved praise.

She calmed herself down with a breath. "I won't beat around the bush. I think infidelity is one of the worst things you can do in a relationship."

Luke dropped his head. Wondered if it was too late to get the obligatory support back.

"I'm pretty close-minded when it comes to that," she continued sheepishly. "There's a lot that I can bend on, but that's something I've never been able to." She spoke with sincerity. "Today, for the first time, I can honestly say that…I bent. Nicole forgiving you like she did shouldn't shock me. You're that guy that you don't give up on, I guess. As lame as that sounds," she added with a chuckle. "Sleeping with someone else definitely doesn't define who you are. Can't speak for the rest of the people in that group, but I can vouch for you." She sighed. Readied herself for anything.

"Is that all?" he asked evenly.

She sat on that for a moment. "Uh, yeah, I think that sums it up." She paused. "That's my full…unauthorized…opinion."

He nodded his approval. "I appreciate the honesty. Saying how you really feel about all that, it helps."

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

He'd already said as much. He didn't plan to say it again.

"Look, I have to get going. Can't sit on the phone all night, you know?"

"Yes, definitely. Fifteenth time telling me that is the charm. I'm going to actually respect it this time, I promise."

"Thanks," he followed.

"Bye, Luke."

"For the record," he began calmly, "I didn't sleep with anybody. But if you want to vouch for Nicole, you have my blessing."

There was silence on Lorelai's end. She waited in vain for him to explain that. "I don't understand."

"What's there to understand?"

"What you just said. I-I don't understand," she repeated. "Nicole was unfaithful to you?" She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense."

"Well, it wouldn't be my life if it wasn't a little complicated," he responded dismally. He stood from his bed. "See you tomorrow," he said as his final goodbye. "I'm assuming you'll be in to fuel your coffee addiction at some point?"

She stuttered, still trying to wrap her head around his news. "Uh, yeah, sure, of course—but Luke, about—"

"Later, Lorelai."

With that, Luke hung up. He zipped up his bag and flung it over his shoulder. He grabbed his keys, turned off the lights, and headed for the door. Didn't think about the long drive ahead of him. Didn't think about the company that he was in no mood to keep.

He left the apartment and hurried along before Nicole decided to call, too.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Lying in bed, Luke's unconscious led him to a black night. Alone in the middle of nowhere.

No stars lit the sky. Only the crescent moon to provide much needed direction. He stepped along uneven marsh with the smell of rainwater and soaked vegetation all around.

Though nature was home to him, having no knowledge of his whereabouts and nothing but the clothes on his back wasn't how his communes generally played out.

Suddenly, the dissonant sound of a woman's laughter filled the outdoors. Not finding that it was coming from any one direction, Luke scanned every one of them.

The more disturbed he became, the more derisive the laughter got.

"Hello?!"

He took a slow step and then another. Started walking and then jogging toward nothing in particular. Ahead, he spotted a light that looked to be the beginning part of a tunnel. He picked up speed as he raced toward the only thing he could see in the ever-growing nightmarish environment.

Upon making it there, the light expanded and brightened around him.

The laughing finally began to fade into the background. The more he walked, the fainter it became. He heard a hum in the distance. It didn't last long. It stopped and there was silence. Then a voice.

"Luke, is that you?"

He paused, eyebrows creased. He'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Lorelai?"

Her laughter was soft, pleasing, and joyful. "You scared me," she revealed. "Come over here. I have to show you something."

Luke moved at a faster pace. Tried to peer through the consuming light but didn't see anything. He was anxious and curious. Relieved and giddy, even. "Where are you?" He frowned. "Hell, where am I?"

"I don't know, but hurry up, will you?"

"I'm trying."

"Faster, faster! Marco!"

He rolled his eyes. "Polo," he followed with way less enthusiasm than he really had right then.

"You're getting closer. Follow my voice."

He put his hand out in front of his face. "Light's really bright."

"Close your eyes, then, Silly. Follow my voice."

"That's stupid." He closed his eyes anyway and walked on with no difficulty.

"You following it?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome roadmap, huh?"

He shook his head, smiled a little. "Yeah, it is," he admitted gruffly.

"La la la la la la la."

"What are you doing?"

"Helping the process. Hurry up!"

"Okay, okay."

"You're almost here."

"How can you tell?"

"Silly question."

"No, it isn't. We're not near each other." His eyes remained closed. He moved along effortlessly. "So, how can you tell?"

"I can tell."

"How?"

"You and me, Kid, we're kindred spirits. Duh."

"Did you just 'duh' me?"

"Hey, you asked for it."

"Jeez."

"How close are you?"

"I'm almost there."

There was a smile in her voice. "How can you tell?"

He thought for a moment, bewildered. "No idea."

"Can I use my 'duh' now?"

"Few more yards."

"Yes, only a few more yards."

Luke winded through the ongoing path of light. Moved further from darkness, and the natural call for vigilance wore away.

He made it there in fifteen seconds flat. Kept his eyes closed at the sheer wonder of having made it there at all. Not by sight, but sound and something else that he couldn't find a name for. He stopped in front of where he believed Lorelai to be. He could feel sunshine beaming down, could hear pleasant sounds of nature, and could feel thick soft blades of grass beneath his suddenly bare feet.

"Good to see you."

He smiled at her voice. "You too."

"Gonna open your eyes any time soon or are you waiting for me to transform into Mira Sorvino?"

Luke's smile went wider before he slowly peeled his eyes open. He stared straight into the face of Nicole. He backed away in surprise. She shook her head in disappointment. Glared. She cracked a smile and then giggled. Suddenly, throwing her head back, she laughed in a way that gave Cruella a run for her money.

Luke backed away more. Completely horrified. He was able to catch only a glance of the beautiful landscape and sky before everything shifted and turned grey and bleak. Grass turned to jagged rock under his feet. Chirping birds gave way to dangerous growls that thankfully remained in distant and unseen locations. And Nicole continued on laughing like some creepy witch.

Same laughter he'd been hearing.

He plugged his ears and stared at her like she was insane.

"Once a cheater, always a cheater!" she screeched. "Cheater! Cheater! Filthy cheater!"

Luke grimaced. "Jeez!"

"Cheater!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "What were you going to do? Kiss her?!" She was angry and still laughing as Luke's conscience absorbed the attacked.

"Stop it, Nicole!"

"Why don't you stop cheating, Cheater!"

"What the hell is this?" he demanded.

She spun around with her laughter. "You can't get it up for me but you can get it up for some dumb slut in a dingy motel. You're a disgrace! A disgrace to your father! Your father would hate you. He'd hate you, you weak half-a-man!" She danced in merriment.

Luke was mortified and stunned at her words. At her ability to say such a thing. Angry that what she was saying was possibly true.

His words came from a broken place. "You're not the woman I thought you were."

"And you're not the man I thought you were!" she countered in a yell.

"Can you calm down and talk like a normal person?"

"I want you to suffer!" she screamed.

"Okay, this is—".

"I want you to suffer!" she screamed louder.

He tossed his hands up. "Fine."

She finally stopped laughing like a crazy fool. Stared at him with a solid and cold demeanor. "I hate you, Luke."

He didn't say anything. Her words hurt deeply, but he accepted the hurt he'd caused.

"I can't trust you, and I fucking hate you!"

"Did you forget that you slept with someone else?" he reminded tightly.

"That's different, and you know it. Cheater."

"Stop calli-"

"Cheater."

"Damn it, Nicole."

"Cheater!"

"STOP IT!"

"What, the cheater's getting mad?"

"It's not different! It does matter! And damn it, I hate you right back!" he exploded. "You happy? This what you wanted, huh?! Us screaming at each other like dysfunctional idiots?!"

She started laughing again instantly. Could barely get words out. "You're the idiot. In case you haven't noticed, this is a dream, Luke. Your dream. Maybe this is what you really think of yourself, the no good cheating bastard that you are. Can't say I blame you. Cheater cheater pumpkin eater!" she sang with a chorus of laughter.

"I've got to get out of here," he said to himself.

"No. You stay. In fact, let's bring your father back out here."

A look of terror passed Luke's face as Nicole began to shout to the heavens. "William! William! Come have another one-on-one talk with your bouncing baby boy!"

"What are you doing?" he fumed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she ridiculed. "William!"

"What are you doing?"

Like a lawn mower slow to start up, laughter started low in her throat and straggled out until there was true volume. She chose to answer Luke by once again summoning his father.

"What are you doing?!" He looked around in panic, hoping no one answered her calls. "What are you doing?" he continued. "What are you DOING? Nicole! What are you doing?"

"Luke?"

"What are you doing?"

"Luke?"

Luke slipped back into consciousness with help from a firm hand shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and realized he'd been dreaming when he felt his pillow smashed against his cheek.

With his face turned away from his once sleeping partner, the shaking continued for seconds more.

"Luke?" Nicole called again. "Wake up."

"Ohnawah," he mumbled indecipherably.

"Luke?"

He lifted his head and said again, "I'm awake."

Nicole sounded worried. "What was I doing?"

"What?"

"You kept asking over and over what I doing like I was torturing you."

Luke had rolled onto his back. He wiped at his eyes as he easily recalled the horrid dream. Nicole flipped on the bedside light, and he carefully adjusted his eyes to their bedroom. Decorated and loved by her and her, alone.

"I dunno. Just some stupid dream," he relayed. "Sorry I woke you."

"It's fine. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Not sure what brought that on."

"Glad I didn't do anything to inspire it. You sounded really freaked out. If you're going to dream about me, I'd rather I be doing something kind…and arousing," she ended farcically.

He smiled. Over the dream he'd just had, he definitely prefer that, too, but it'd been quite a while since he'd dreamed about her like that. "Go back to sleep."

She nodded. "Okay." She moved in and kissed his lips. "I love you."

"Me too."

Nicole remained looking at him. He met her eyes uneasily and they both just smiled. Luke wasn't a lovey dovey guy by a long shot, and for the most part, she had no issues with that. But sometimes it did bother her that he never said the words back to her.

When her gaze remained fixed on his face, Luke finally inquired. "What?"

She shook her head as if to say 'nothing' and smiled again. Her eyes dropped from his eyes to his sexy stubble-covered jaw and finally to his defined pecks not very well hidden by his thin T-shirt. It'd been way too long since she'd had the pleasure of being pressed up against them.

Her eyes went back to his. "How do you feel about making love?"

His eyes widened. "To you?" he asked instantly.

A look of pure agitation crossed her features, and she opened her mouth to speak, but Luke amended his words before she could.

"I misspoke," he appeased. He watched and made sure she accepted the truth behind that. She seemed to, so he continued. "I mean, now?" He looked at the alarm clock. "It's three in the morning."

She chose not to state how when they'd first started their relationship, no time was off limits. One night, every hour on the hour, she awoke to him nibbling on her neck.

"Yes, Luke. Now. We're both wide awake." She paused. "And also…"

"Also what?" he asked.

"We haven't. Since."

"I know that."

"So, that's not a problem to you?"

"I don't feel like arguing at three o'clock in the morning, Nicole."

"It's not an argument."

"If we keep talking about this, it's going to become one."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

He rolled his eyes. Apparently, a three o'clock argument was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not. So much for her earlier apology. "I know how you feel about this. I know it because we talk about it every day. For six weeks, all we've done is talk about it. Let's give it a rest for one night. And believe me, this is the last thing I want to talk about, but remember what happened last night? Remember what I did? How could you be thinking about sex right now?" he asked in disbelief.

She sighed. "That's in the past."

He put his hands over his face. "I just want to sleep."

"And to answer your question, I want to have sex with you because we need this. This isn't healthy. Maybe if we'd been having sex, last night wouldn't have—"

"I'm done talking about this."

"We're not done. We can't ever be done until we achieve something positive. That has yet to happen."

"We'll keep working on it. Just not now." He looked at her squarely. "And sex is the last thing I'm thinking about right now."

Her expression grew grim. "With me." She paused. "You mean sex with me," she stated factually.

"Goodnight, Nicole."

She watched him turn over and pull the covers up to his neck. She became angry.

"I wouldn't suggest shutting me out like this, Luke. It's only so much a woman can take."

That got his attention. He peered over his shoulder at her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"What does it sound like?"

"You taking it too damn far, that's what it sounds like."

She shrugged airily. "Goodnight, Luke." She copied his earlier move by turning away.

He stared at her from behind as she sighed with false peacefulness and settled herself like she hadn't one care in the world. Luke could barely remember the last night they'd had together that didn't feature pettiness and arguments.

He rolled his eyes and turned his back to her as well. "Ask me again what inspired that nightmare from before," he muttered.

Nicole turned around at that. She had heard him clearly. He'd spoken just loud enough for her to hear every word. "What did you say?" she asked anyway.

He didn't speak.

"I know you hear me talking to you, Luke. What did you just say?" she demanded.

"Go to sleep," he stated firmly.

"Let me remind you, you're my partner, not my father. Now, for the third time, what did you just say?"

Luke cursed himself for having said anything to her at all. He should have just let her 'win'. At least, now, there'd be quiet.

A long silence led her to conclude, "So, you're just going to lay there and ignore me?"

Luke looked ahead at various items on that side of the room. He honestly didn't know what to say. Was this to be their life from now on? When things were going well, it was good. But when they were at odds, he didn't like her. He didn't want to be around her. To him, she became a different person. She often sought him out to smooth things over because he was never in a rush to do it.

He'd seen his parents fight many times, and not once did he get the feeling that they regretted their choice to be life partners. Fights were inevitable, but they never turned their back on the other without instant and sincere regrets at having done so. He didn't know a lot about love, but through his parents, he knew of the tiny things that made it true.

"You know what? Fine. If you want to act this way, I don't want to sleep in the same bed as you." She waited for him to show signs of life, but he didn't. "I'll be on the couch," she decided. She reached back, grabbed her pillow and got to her feet. She stood looking at him before she became incensed at his inability to acknowledge her extreme sleeping arrangement.

With a yank, she pulled the comforter from the bed, leaving him covered in only a sheet. Without thought, she gathered a fistful of that and yanked it off as well, leaving him completely exposed to the night temperatures.

Luke clenched his jaw but still chose not to move or speak.

Nicole studied him for long seconds. With a heavy sigh, Luke heard her climb back in the bed. A short time later, he felt cover being tossed haphazardly back over his still body. She made sure he was sufficiently covered and then she reached over and hit the light.

Luke was grateful. He was about five seconds away from getting up and going home to Stars Hollow. When she acted that way, it was best to not be anywhere around her.

When all was quiet, he closed his eyes thankfully.

"I really hate you sometimes, Luke," Nicole revealed in a quiet and irrefutable tone.

Luke struggled to keep his eyes and mouth closed.

Oh yeah, this was love, alright.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Patty sat at a table in the diner with Babette. She looked up to see that it was Luke passing by her chair. She smiled toward his facial area, though he kept moving and paid her no mind. As he moved along, her eyes fell to his ass.

She followed it to the counter and then looked away casually. Normal practice. If it was visible, she looked.

Neither of the ladies had been present the day before when Nicole had come into the diner. They had gotten word that something had gone down, but no one seemed to know much. Intense whispering, angry posturing, and a loud chagrined request made by Nicole as she exited were pretty much all they had.

Now, approaching hour two on this late morning, they sat, drank coffee, and patiently waited to see if there'd be another visit from the Litchfield girlfriend. No one in the town truly cared for her. Not that they'd ever let that be known. She was nice enough and they doubted that any man, even Luke, would've turned down the opportunity to see what she could do in the sack. Unfortunately for all of them, Luke wasn't the wam bam type, so their relationship had, of course, escalated beyond that. He was as close as he'd been in years to marrying someone.

They'd known from the beginning that she would never fit in the small town. Watching her try would've been intriguing. Much to their dismay, however, she didn't even try. She'd simply convinced the unmovable man to pick up and move to where she was. She and Luke certainly appeared to be on the road to something permanent.

At least until lately.

Lately, there was a lot of question marks. Way too many for Patty and Babette's liking.

"Call him over here again," Babette suggested.

"Patience, Dear. It's only been five minutes."

"How long 'til we do?"

Patty calculated a response. "Let's wait a bit longer than we did before. Last time didn't go so well."

Babette groaned the memory of Luke's biting words for them to leave him alone. "So, what are we talking?!" she rasped. "Ten, fifteen more?"

"Oh, Honey, I said patience, not a life sentence!" she drawled absurdly.

"Yeah, you're right." Babette thought. "Two minutes, it is!"

"Sure that'll be enough?" Patty asked with worry.

Babette shrugged. He'd be lucky if they made it through that. "Well, I was gonna say five, but way I figure, we've been talking about it for three minutes at least! That brings us down to two."

"You're absolutely right."

"Of course, I am!"

"In fact," Patty looked at her watch, "We've probably just talked through that last two minutes, too."

"He probably thinks we've taken a vow of silence by now!" Babette waved her hand frantically in Luke's direction. "Luke! Luke! Come over here, Doll. We have to run somethin' past ya."

"I'm working," he snapped.

"It'll just take a second," she promised.

"Like I'm gonna fall for that one."

Patty took an unhurried sip of coffee. "Give us three minutes, and we'll leave. Deal?"

Luke was working behind the counter and didn't slow. "How about I give you no minutes, and you leave," he suggested.

"As appealing as that is, Darling, it doesn't strike me as altogether advantageous. I'm, at times a little, what's the word, Billie Dawn…but I've always kept my wits about me. As the great Mae West once said, 'A dame that knows the ropes isn't gonna get tied up'."

Luke rolled his eyes as he carried plates. "Whatever that means."

"Come on, three minutes isn't gonna kill ya!"

"Don't be so sure about that," Luke mumbled.

Patty and Babette shared a look and shrugged. Luke always made their job so difficult. Patty sighed and held up her half-full mug in his direction.

"More coffee, Dear?"

"Be right there," Luke said hurriedly as he carried empty plates past them.

A minute later, he headed to their table with a pot of caffeinated coffee in his hand. Before he could pour, Patty lifted her mug to drink. "Let me get a good sip while it's still cooled," she explained breezily.

Luke rolled his eyes around as he held the coffee pot at ready. Patty gave Babette a look over the rim of her cup. She kept drinking. Her sip was long and exaggerated. Babette was quick to pick up the subtle signal.

"So, uh, Gorgeous…" Her eyes bounced around before going up to him. "What's been goin' on?"

Luke tossed a careless glance at her. "As far as what?" he asked.

"Well, uh, everything," she answered with uncertainty after a shifty glimpse at Patty. Patty still drank.

Luke lowered the pot to his side and eyed Patty reproachfully. "Everything's good," he answered automatically to Babette. "Are you going to be finished sometime today?" That, to Patty.

She only shrugged and held the cup at her mouth.

"Fine, just let me know when you're done, and I'll be back," he said with a turn.

Babette lunged into speech. "Luke, about yesterday!" He turned back, and she looked confused as to what had come from her own mouth.

"What about yesterday?" His tone was a warning, as he had already made it clear that he wasn't up for any personal discussion at all.

She went for broke. "We gotta know. We're just worried about ya! Is the thing over with the gorgeous lawyer or are you two still trudgin' along?"

He leaned in. "Short answer or long answer?" he answered with eye contact.

Babette grew surprised, tossed a look at Patty, and then answered giddily, "Either one's good with me."

He nodded. Leaned in more. "This is between me and Nicole. Not you or anybody else, so sit here quietly and stop bugging me or pay your bill and leave." He shot a look to Patty. "Both of you!"

The two women shared another look and reached a silent agreement.

"What's the third option?" Babette asked with hope.

Luke rolled his eyes and walked away.

They watched him go. "Well, we tried. Can't say we didn't try," Babette announced.

"And we shall again," Patty promised.

Babette sighed, and then her eyes grew in size and she turned full attention to Patty with excitement. "Hey when's the last time you saw Irene Davenport? She went to that beautician of hers and now her hair is stacked on one side of her head like the Sheth Tower! Enough hair spray to choke a horse!"

Patty chuckled. "I'd still say that's improvement," she shared.

"Got that right. And what about Martin Knapp's new mustache he's growing in? Have you locked eyes on that travesty?!"

"My god, yes. He looks like an eighties porn star."

They cackled.

The diner door opened, and Lorelai stepped inside. Babette and Patty's table was the first thing her eyes landed on. She smiled at her two favorite troublemakers. "Hiya, Ladies. How's everything?"

"Can't complain!"

"Nice, but…drafty," Patty concluded as she tossed her head in Luke's direction.

Lorelai looked there. She spotted Luke behind the counter and found it difficult to look away. She knew she couldn't determine anything just from looking at him, but she sure couldn't stop herself from trying.

"Well…" she began with her mind and focus across the diner, "After all these years, you two should be familiar with the wind chill factor." She finally looked away from Luke in order to give them a stern but fruitless look. "Especially when you question him up a wall. Have you two young ladies been questioning him up a wall?" she asked.

Babette scoffed. "A whole lotta good it did us."

Patty nodded her agreement. "Maybe you'll have more luck."

Lorelai smiled. "Sorry, Ladies, my mission, and I do choose to accept, is only centered around coffee and lots of it."

"Wouldn't it be great if she were in our corner?" Babette mooned to Patty.

"We'd be unstoppable. An inside track to Luke? Can you imagine?" They spoke aloud to each other though Lorelai stood there.

"It'd be like having an in to…to…Area 51!"

"But better."

"We'd be the envy of the entire circuit."

"Circuit?" Lorelai questioned.

Patty gesticulated gracefully. "Purveyors of integral abstracts."

"Ohhh," Lorelai nodded in understanding. "You mean the gossip circle!"

Patty shrugged. "Well…if you want to get technical."

"I don't like technical," Babette chimed in with a wave of her hand.

"Not a fan, myself," Patty followed. They smiled at one another.

Lorelai chuckled. "Okay, I'm headed up. Take it easy, you two. And be good!" She waved and walked on.

"Good? Oh, dear. Where's the fun in that?" Patty called after her, much to the delight of her and her tablemate.

Lorelai approached the counter. Luke's focus was on a paper. He'd, of course, seen her conversing at the table he referred to as the busybody table, so when he heard someone come up and claim a stool, he didn't have to look up to know who it was.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey, Luke."

Her greeting was subdued, which was normal for normal people but odd for Lorelai. He looked up and saw an instant smile. With that, he was satisfied enough to go back to his sheet.

"You want some coffee?"

"Of course." She settled into her seat. "How are you?"

"Can't complain." He got her coffee and went back to what he was doing.

She drank her first sip and nodded with approval. "How was the drive this morning?"

He shrugged. "Long. Quiet." He looked at her. "Traffic's rarely an issue at 5:30 in the morning."

"Makes sense."

He nodded his agreement on that. Smirked a little after there were seconds of quiet. "Why so calm?"

"You're questioning my calmness? I can be calm."

"Obviously."

"You've seen my calmness before."

"If you say so."

"In fact, I'm always calm. I just choose to make it interesting by revving it up with a little spice of life."

"Which results in something that is very much the opposite of calm."

"What's the opposite of calm?"

"You."

"I don't know how to take that," she said in thought.

"Take it as it's intended. The truth, simple as that."

She took another sip from her mug. "Well, as we speak, I have my drug of choice here running through my body, waking things up and knocking things around. I'm sure I'll be back to giving Buster Keaton a run for his money in no time."

"I can't wait."

She smiled. "Plan to feed me, or should I switch teams, suffer the commute, and see if they know how to treat a girl at Café Lalo?"

"Oh yeah, what're you having?"

"Nothing."

He'd picked up his order pad but dropped it back down with a roll of his eyes. "Is this where I'm supposed to howl in laughter?" he asked with disinterest.

"Well, I had that scheduled at noon, but if you want to offer up a little preview, who am I to stop you?"

He yawned. "Hope you ate something already. Or plan to eat something when you get to work," he stated drably but with a great deal of resolution.

"Are you tired?" she asked with concern.

"I'll live."

"I actually plan to eat here. Just not now. Did you not get much sleep last night?" When the question left her mouth, she physically rolled her eyes at herself. She hadn't meant to imply there might've been a sex-filled night for him and Nicole, but since that was the first thing that came to her mind, she was certain his interpretation would mirror that.

"My night was fine," he answered bluntly. He moved past it. "What do you mean 'not now'? What are you waiting on to order?"

She leaned forward. "Do you mind if we talk?"

"Okay…" He seemed to give her the floor.

She smiled at that. Spoke quietly. "A continuation of last night's discussion," she clarified meekly. She gestured to their surroundings and all the people. "So, upstairs, maybe?"

He lifted his brows. Looked confused. "What exactly do you want to talk about?"

The smile that emerged was sincere and heartbreaking. "Stuff that isn't any of my business," she replied in honesty.

His eyes remained on her smile. He usually made himself look away. But sometimes, he'd just drink it in. He was a master of the poker face, so it really didn't matter whether he looked or not. Her smile faded as she bit her lip. He had to wonder if she knew what she was doing. Something told him that as incisive as she was, when it came to those allures, she was painfully oblivious.

As usual, he gave no indication of having been affected at all. "No thanks," he replied in monotone before dropping his eyes. He looked back up a second later to see her pulling back, actually accepting that. Without quips or jibber jabber. That bothered him.

He rolled his eyes. "It's personal stuff, Lorelai. I shouldn't be talking about it with anyone but Nicole. You know?" His tone slightly pleaded with her to understand that.

Lorelai nodded. "I get that."

His eyes remained on her. She got it, alright. But she wasn't at peace with it. "Do you really?" he asked flatly.

She fought a smile, but it came anyway. Her eyes were on the counter as she nodded her head. Followed that with an indecisive shrug.

He looked over her shoulder at Babette and Patty yapping away, sharing the latest gossip.

As if his tone would help him to save face, he said the following as grumpy as possible. "I've only got five minutes, so make it fast." He turned on his heel and called for help out front. He made it to the curtain before he turned to see if Lorelai would have gotten the hint to follow. She had climbed from her stool and was only a couple steps behind. He shook his head at her smiling and gracious face as she passed by him at his gentlemanly offer for her to lead the way.

She made it to his door and stopped, forcing Luke to stop, too.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked. "Go in."

She gestured in front of her while peering over her shoulder at him. "This is your place, so I can't just walk inside like I own the joint."

"Well, it's not exactly a B&E. Open the door."

"Can you?"

"Why can't you?!"

"Luke, you're making this way too difficult," she said rationally. She turned to face him and pointed a finger at him. "And my five minutes hasn't started yet, by the way!"

He sighed loudly and came toward her in a swift move that made her heart jump. All of his attention was on the door. He placed a hand on the side of her stomach and moved her to the side. An unexpected gentle touch from a man who was fully at his wit's end. He opened the door with more of the agitation that showed in his demeanor and gestured her on ahead.

"Unless you need me to carry you over the damn threshold, too."

Her eyes were on his face as she slowly found her composure. It wasn't clear to her why her body always reacted to him, but it did. Definitely wasn't something in her control. She started to smile amusedly. "I am a bit tired from the stair climb, so if you don't mind, I think I'll take you up on-"

"Get inside, please," he interrupted resignedly.

She saluted him, turned, and hurried inside to his former bachelor pad. She looked around at things as Luke followed her in and closed the door.

"Hey, Luke, any chance you're looking to rent this place out? My second home in the Alps is going to take some time to secure, but I think I can swing this place. Formidable second best what with all the pie, coffee, and the bitchin' vintage seventies feel. But if you don't mind, I may throw up a poster or two. Just so I won't wake up one day thinking I have a recently used Delorean somewhere awaiting my return."

Luke went to the fridge and took out two bottles of water. He pulled out a chair at the kitchen table, sat one of the bottles in front of the opposite chair and he took a seat with his own bottle. He relaxed, got the top off, and drank.

Lorelai walked over and joined him at the table. She thanked him with a smile for the water and then gingerly touched at the cold bottle.

"So, what's this about?"

She feigned thought as if she didn't have a solid direction. "Nicole."

His brows lifted. "Oh?"

She put both hands in her lap and looked at him. "Luke, why didn't you tell me that you weren't unfaithful to Nicole?" she questioned softly.

He didn't like the idea of talking about it at all. But Lorelai always required a different set of rules. He'd been there, done that in trying to fight it.

"Because I was," he stated plainly.

She paused, held contact. "No, you weren't." She said that with confidence, but she felt like her head was spinning.

Luke mumbled under his breath, tilted his head back and squeezed his eyes closed as memories raked over his thoughts. His father's face. His own disappointments. Nightmares that happened even when he wasn't asleep.

"Yes, I was," he refuted.

Lorelai lowered her eyes momentarily. Dared to ask, "What happened that night?"

"Doesn't matter."

She stared at him. "Is Nicole encouraging this? You feeling like this?"

"No, she's not," he was quick to defend.

"Okay, well, is she discouraging it?" she asked with assumption.

"I'm done talking about this," he said as he looked off distantly.

"Luke?"

He was slow to bring his eyes back to her, away from whatever memory had led him off. He only looked at her in acknowledgement and then stood from the table as he put words into action.

Lorelai stood up, too. "Worst case scenario is you being in a compromising position. One that you probably got into because you were drunk, which you were, and confused and hurt, which you were because your girlfriend slept with someone else! Who knows when this was, but my money would go to a few weeks ago when you started sleeping at the diner more and she stopped showing up. I'd guess it was a rough patch, a period where you were together but not really together, a bump in the road that she uses to justify sleeping with another guy. You found out about it, likely with no help from her, and she still acted as if she had nothing to be sorry for. Weeks of fighting led to two nights ago. Let me know if I'm off track with this," she threw in with a fiery edge as the high probability of those assumptions caught up to her. "Worst case scenario-and I do mean the worst possible case -is two nights ago…" She paused. Stared back into his eyes as he stared into hers. He let her know without a word that she wasn't too far off mark. "You kissed another woman," she ended.

She took a steadying breath as she got confirmation of that from Luke's eyes.

"And it would have gone farther… You had intentions of letting it." She managed to go on. Acted as if she was less affected than she really was. "But you're you," she continued softly. "And you put an end to it. While drunk. And hurt. And probably…physically…into it," she ended with a tiny smile at his suddenly bright red face.

He ignored his own embarrassment. He lowered himself back onto his chair and leaned his face into his hands.

Lorelai watched him for a long minute before reclaiming her seat as well. "Knew my obsession with Daphne Blake and the gang would someday pay off," she joked lightly. "Law degree, schmaw degree, huh?"

Luke shook his head. "I really messed up," he confided.

"It could've been worse. You didn't let it get to worse. How much time have you spent focusing on that part, Luke?"

He looked at her squarely. "There's no grey area when it comes to this. There's black and there's white. There's right and there's wrong," he accentuated.

"People make mistakes," she followed needlessly. "The best thing you could do in this situation is to not make excuses for what you did, and you're clearly not doing that."

"Never thought I'd be that guy," he muttered.

"You're not that guy."

"Lorelai, please." Back to the kindness and hand holding.

She rolled her eyes. "It was a kiss, Luke. One kiss. Nicole forgave you just like that! You're back to living in Litchfield," she said with an unintended bite. "Like nothing ever happened. Remember what I told you last night? You're the guy that you don't give up on. I meant that. And that was when I thought you had sex with someone else! How much more do you think that applies when it's just a kiss?"

He had scooted away from the table and was leaning on his knees while his head hung pensively. "I didn't kiss her," he mumbled.

"What?"

"I said I did not kiss her," he said louder, with despair.

She sat on that for a moment. "Then, what did you do that's got you feeling like this?"

He ran his hand over his face.

Rain. Of course, there was rain.
There was Luke, a bar, liquor poured. So much liquor poured. Enough to tender a large bill and an offer to call a taxicab. He and Nicole had been fighting so much. About nothing and everything. Even before their brief stint apart. It'd lasted 5 days. He had spent that time thinking. She had spent that time on her back. He forgave her for sleeping with another man. But felt constant anger at her. She didn't care enough to acknowledge his battle, his need for healing. She didn't see the betrayal. Didn't care enough to see it. Her character was up for question, and that's what made him turn cold toward her. She didn't understand that, and so they argued. All the damn time. Before his first shot and his second beer, he was approached at the bar. Someone female and pretty. Someone dressed in tight jeans, a revealing top, and a sparkly necklace. Someone interested. He wasn't. She stepped away, and he continued on, emptying glass after glass. Watched himself get blurrier in the mirror that panned out before him. Four beers and three calamitous shots later, there she was again. Saying sexy things to an inebriated pissed off man. He told her no. Told her why. Told her about his selfish ass girlfriend who wouldn't be thrilled about the scene. She didn't give a fuck. She listened, said the right things, used touches, and got him to drop a guard that wasn't easy to drop. He finished his fifth beer. Drenched from the rain, fifteen minutes later, Luke and that someone stepped inside of a cheap motel within walking distance. Luke flopped on the bed and watched the ceiling move. She straddled his waist, and he got rock hard in an instant. Alcohol sent his already high sex drive through the roof. He hadn't had sex in two months. He blinked her into focus. She was removing her shirt. She leaned down when her bra was exposed. Her chest on his, she breathed him in and asked about a condom. What? A condom. Ya know, protection. Swallow. More blinking, less focus. A condom, no. No condom. A smile, a kiss to his chest, a whispered confession that she had one, so no worries. A condom? Yes. A condom for what? Even more blinking, even less focus, more moving ceilings, a harder than hard erection. So we can fuck, what do you think? She started loosening buttons on his shirt but stopped. Laid her hand flat on his chest and laughed. Why is your heart beating so fast? Are you a virgin? Move. What? Move. Why, you want to be on top? Move now. Insulted and confused, it took her too long to move, but she did as she waited for explanation that did not come. He lay there staring upward, jaw tight. She stood. We can do it without a condom if you want; I'm clean. Luke sat up and awkwardly redid the buttons she'd undone on his flannel. What the hell is with you? I'm sorry about all this. Can you get to your car okay? He had to lie back down. He was in no position to hear an answer of no. Mouth open, she stared in disbelief at the massive hard-on in his jeans. Unbelievable. What an asshole. And with that, she left. Luke slept it off for a few hours before driving home.
By then, the rain had stopped.

Lorelai leaned in at his extended silence. "Luke? What'd you do?" she repeated.

"I messed up."

Luke gave new meaning to beating yourself up over something. Lorelai realized how big it was to have gotten as far as she did with him, but not having all the facts was driving her crazy. "Okay, you didn't kiss her," she began. She studied his hanging hat-covered head for a silent moment. "What's left? Heavy petting?" She fidgeted. "Oral?" she offered sheepishly.

His head shot up. "Jeez!"

"Is that a no?" she asked with closed eyes. The question, she knew, would undoubtedly make him uncomfortable but she failed to factor in how uncomfortable it'd make her. She still wanted an answer, unfortunately.

"You're about as bad as Nicole," he groused. "Except with her, I could understand the need for details."

Surprisingly enough, that got met with silence. They had a moment of extended eye contact before Luke casually shook his head and looked down again.

She dropped her eyes, too. Gave attention to her fingernails. Sighed. "So…is it a no?" she asked again quietly.

Luke wasn't sure why that made him smile, but it did. Lorelai saw it form. Saw it disappear. As the things in his head stole it away. "It's a definite no," he answered.

Relief showed in her face. She squinted inquisitively across the table at him. What the hell else was left?

"A really freaky hand holding session?" she offered in jest.

He sat up in the chair, leaned on the table, and met her eyes. The serious look on his face made her tiny smile disappear. "It was me in a hotel room with someone who I had no business being in a hotel room with. This woman wasn't Nicole. That's all that matters. Hell, I don't even remember her name. You want me to tell you what I do remember? I remember being on the bed with her, this woman who wasn't Nicole. Since I don't remember her name, let's just call her Not-My-Damn-Girlfriend," he went on, impassioned. "So, there's me lying on the bed and suddenly Not-My-Damn-Girlfriend is lying beside me." He looked up. "No, sorry, scratch that. She's not beside me; she's on top of me taking off all her clothes. Then suddenly, she's asking me about protection. Protection! Well, at least Not-My-Damn-Girlfriend is responsible. Can't say I don't know how to pick 'em."

He rolled his eyes and sat back.

Lorelai nodded at all he'd said. "And then what?" she asked openly.

"What do you mean 'and then what'?"

"And then what happened?"

He frowned. "Nothing, I told her to get off of me."

"Hm," she followed in nonchalance. "Was she hot?"

"What?!" he questioned absurdly.

Lorelai didn't respond to his shock at all. "Was she ugly? Or was she like…smushing you because she was really heavy?"

"No," he replied with attitude, certainly not seeing the point of the insane and irrelevant questions.

Acting as if she really didn't understand, Lorelai proceeded. "So, why'd you ask her to get off of you, then?"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because she wasn't my damn girlfriend!" he exclaimed, hating that he was being forced to spell it out to someone who was far from stupid.

Lorelai cocked her head at him. "How much was your bar tab?"

He rolled his eyes. Came to a firm conclusion that she was trying to annoy the hell out of him. "What difference does it make?"

"Fifty?"

"Lorelai-"

"Sixty with tip?"

"Dammit, what's your point?"

"So, in conclusion, you had sixty bucks worth of alcohol in your system, a hot and willing woman literally on top of you stripping off her clothes…and you made her redress and leave while you chose to sleep it off." She watched him take in that compacted version of events. "Yeah, that's…exactly…what I call a jerk, Luke."

He dismissed her sarcasm. "I can't help how I feel," he said quietly.

She smiled and fingered her bottle of water again. "I can't believe I ever doubted you. I feel like an idiot, you know."

He only caught glimpses of her face as his eyes focused on other things. "You shouldn't. I did let you down." He corrected that with bare effort. "I mean I let Nicole down."

"Nicole let you down."

He scoffed. "Sure isn't how she sees it."

"Who cares how she sees it?" she asked with anger that surprised, even, her. "Okay, sure, you put yourself in a really crappy position that night. But how many men do you know would have had the strength to get themselves out of it at that point? While completely hammered! Let me tell you, I've been completely hammered, okay? Judgment is one of the first things to go. Limitations are next, but we won't get into that."

He laughed a little.

"Luke, you're amazing. If Nicole doesn't let you know that, then I will." He stopped looking around and met her eyes then. "Don't beat yourself up over this. You don't deserve that."

He nodded. Finally seemed to hear her. "I, uh, probably won't be drinking for a while."

Lorelai smirked. "Well, you can drink. Just try to stay clear of hot women and rooms with beds." She ended that with a wink.

His eyes involuntarily went behind where she sat and stayed there for a moment too long. Had Lorelai turning. She spotted his new full-sized bed and turned back with a soft laugh. She finally picked up her water bottle as a diversion and twisted the cap. "You don't have to worry about me. I save my good loving for men who don't abandon their hometown."

That got a decent smile out of him. She drank a small sip and lowered the bottle back to the table.

"And who don't have a girlfriend," she teased mildly. She avoided his eyes but smiled wider when she heard his breathy chuckle.

She looked up eventually and didn't expect him to be looking at her, but he was. The contact lasted only two seconds. No time at all. But it was enough to make them both stop smiling. They looked in opposite directions.

Luke cleared his throat.

Lorelai took a loud breath and audibly placed both hands on the table. "I guess we better uh…"

"Go," he finished amicably.

Lorelai stood and looked at her watch. "Wow, I said five minutes, and we've been up here for-"

"Much longer. Of course. It's to be expected whenever Lorelai and talking are intermingled."

Luke walked around the table and joined her in heading toward the door. Lorelai responded over her shoulder, "Well, at least it's not something that snuck up on ya."

"Nah, definitely not a surprise," he followed as he leaned around her and got the door. Thoughtlessly, he touched his hand to the small of her back and then corrected that gaffe a split second later. Finished pulling the door open without invading her space.

His touch was extremely light, extremely brief, but it was felt. Lorelai ignored her body's inability to innocently and quickly deal with that sensation. It wasn't exactly something to get used to, but she'd been experiencing it for years. Was coming upon being normal.

"You know, if my coffee has gotten cold, you have to give me more."

"I'll replace it."

"And more and more and more and more."

"Because it's my fault it got cold?"

"Sure, why not."

"It's your fault it got cold."

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to talk."

"No, you're the one that wanted to talk!" he disputed.

"Well, you're the one that listened."

"So, if I had said no…?"

"I never would've left my mug, it never would've gotten cold, you wouldn't owe me a gazillion cups of coffee."

"Your logic sucks."

"My logic is brilliant."

"Hurry up down the stairs, will you? Snails move faster."

"Heels, Luke."

"Jeez."

"Let's switch shoes and see how you do."

"Those shoes with this hat? I wouldn't be caught dead."

"Little more patience…and tada." She moved the curtain back and looked back into his face. "We made it, Luke."

He pushed her forward enough to squeeze past her. "Wonderful. Now, get over there with all the other customers."

"Oh, how quickly I fall from grace," she proclaimed sullenly. She approached her stool, eyes on her once steaming cup of coffee. A long pair of diner-facing legs caught her eye, and she followed those legs up to the face of Luke's not-so-sweet sweetheart.

"Oh. Hey, Nicole," she greeted, startled.

Nicole smiled. "Hey, Lorelai." She looked over her shoulder at Luke, whose attention she had by then as well. "Where are you guys coming from?" she asked neither of them in particular.

Lorelai looked at Luke nervously. "Oh, we were just, uh-"

"Upstairs," Luke concluded.

Nicole looked at him. "Oh?"

"Yup." He got the coffee pot, another mug, and replaced Lorelai's coffee.

Nicole didn't respond to his flippancy. They hadn't worked through the previous night's disagreement, so she figured that was the reason for it.

"Upstairs doing what?" she asked to Lorelai. Her tone was very smooth and mannered.

"Talking," Luke chimed in as he went about setting patrons up with food and drink.

Nicole visibly grew irritated. He was obviously trying to bait her. "Talking about what?" she asked as she followed him with her eyes.

"This and that."

"Luke," Lorelai scolded with subtlety. He looked at her, and she gave him a look that asked him to chill. Was he trying to fight with the woman?

Nicole's focus shifted to how naturally Lorelai had found it to intervene and reign him in. That was a bit of a problem for her.

"Luke, I need to talk to you."

"About what?" He kept working.

Lorelai slowly moved to sit. Nicole was seated next to where she'd been, so it wasn't the most comfortable sit by a long shot.

"About something private. Do you mind?"

Luke recognized the look of ire in her eyes. Too much of him felt unmoved by it. Lorelai had managed to lead him to the tiniest bit of self- forgiveness. As hard as it was to admit, she was right. The events of that night could've been worse. He hadn't done everything right that night, but he hadn't done everything wrong, either. Considering everything, Nicole could've acknowledged that. She could've done more than forgive him straight away, only out of relief that he'd lost the right to be righteous. Way he saw it, it worked out well for her. His actions were enough of a sin to loosen her own shackles but genteel enough to shield her from true pain. The kind she'd inflicted with her affair.

Lorelai was right in her assumption. Nicole did nothing to encourage his torment, but she certainly didn't do anything to discourage it, either. He didn't feel as if he deserved the reprieve, but her reasoning was far more selfish. She had to know the moment he felt less guilty, the more guilt would be placed on her doorstep again.

As he stood behind the counter with his eyes on hers, he didn't care about her mood. Seeing her made him tired when seconds earlier, he'd been skating along buoyancy.

"We can talk later if you want. I'm working now."

Nicole pulled herself together before smoothly looking to Lorelai. Feeling that attention instantly, Lorelai looked from her mug to Nicole. She had no answers, so she ended up shrugging as Nicole just stared solemnly as if she required explanation from her. Respectfully, she dropped her eyes again. Still felt that heated gaze. Long seconds later, she felt the respect about to give way to an eye roll. What was her problem?

Luke finally noticed the weird scene. "Hey," he called lightly. That gained Nicole's focus. He glanced at Lorelai, sure she was freaked out from that unexpected stare-down. Nicole could be intense. He spoke back to her. "I know you have to get back to work, so why don't I just see you tonight? We can talk then if you want."

"Stop saying if I want. We need to talk, Luke. Now."

He gestured around. "I told you I'm-"

She lightly cleared her throat to cut him off. Stood up like she was done talking. Spoke rationally. "I sat here for five minutes at least before you and Lorelai came back downstairs. If you had time to talk to her, you have time to talk to me. I think that's fair." She stared at him, daring him to test her tightly wound patience. When he stared back but remained quiet, she rolled her eyes away and started moving. Didn't get too far before she stopped and backed up a step. Got within whispering distance of Lorelai. "If you can spare a second, why don't you join us?"

She didn't remain in place long enough to even feel the wind from Lorelai's hair as her head whipped around. With Nicole, by then, several feet away, Lorelai was left to focus confused eyes on Luke.

He looked perturbed and bored with the dramatics. "Stay," he permitted.

"But…"

He looked over to see that Nicole had invited herself behind the curtain and up the stairs. "I guess I'll be right back."

"Uh oh."

Luke looked to Babette and Patty's table where that blurt had come from. Babette clamped her mouth, and Luke moved on.

"Luke?" Lorelai called quietly. He turned back appearing downtrodden. Lorelai got to her feet. "I think I should probably…come."

"No, you shouldn't. Sit down." He turned as if he expected her to actually listen.

He was naively surprised to hear her appear behind him as he started up the stairs. Babette and Patty made no small show of trying to tune in. For that reason, Luke backed up until he was behind the curtain, leaving Lorelai to follow. He got in her face to be able to drop his voice.

She blinked her concerned blue eyes up at him. He smelled good. Like a guy. That was a smell that she hadn't smelled in a very long time.

"Lorelai, go back to your seat. Nicole only asked you up here so she can put on a floorshow and to try some half assed censuring crap. Just go sit down. I'll handle this."

"No," she replied in a kind but firm tone. "She asked me up, so I'm going."

He rolled his eyes. "She's not doing this for any good reason. I'm not for any games right now."

"I'm not playing any games!"

"I'm not talking about you."

She sighed. Grew very apologetic at the resignation he displayed. "She doesn't like me, Luke. In fact, I'm pretty sure she hates me."

"You're probably right." He couldn't even ease her worries on that. Nicole really did not like her. "So, with that said, you should know that all she wants to do is bring you up here so she can use her bullying tactics. Trust me, if you can avoid it, it's best to avoid it. For your sanity, if nothing else."

"I'm not afraid of her."

"That's not the point."

"It is the point. She doesn't like me, and I know I'm not being invited up here so we can bond. But since she hates my guts so much, maybe with me in there, she'll focus on me and give you a break."

He backed up some. Laughed mordantly before looking back to her. "Lorelai, if you go up there, it's not going to give me break. In fact, it'll make it fifty times worse."

"You don't know that."

"Oh, but I do."

"Okay, if I stay down here, will it make it better?"

"No."

"Okay, then. It's settled. I'm going."

"Lorelai," he said with composure. She'd started walking forward as if he'd automatically turn and lead the way and he stopped her with his hand on her stomach. She backed up a step and folded her arms receptively. Had such an unaffected look on her face. As if her torso wasn't on fire.

"Lorelai," he went on. "Can you listen to me, please?"

"I am listening to you."

"If you were listening to me, I wouldn't be body blocking you right now!"

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Luke, has it occurred to you that I may have some of my own things I need to get straight with Nicole?"

"Like what?" he asked preposterously.

"Like," she began with annoyance. She gestured at him. Said the next part with covertness and discomfort. "Contrary to what she thinks, I'm not some floozy who's going to try to steal her boyfriend away."

"Who the hell said you were?!" he asked with a face that was quickly turning red.

"She did! She says it with her eyes every time she looks at me. Why do you think she hates me?"

He rolled his eyes. "She doesn't think that."

"You don't know women very well."

He looked offended. "Apparently, neither do you!"

"My uterus and I beg to differ."

He eyed her plainly. "She doesn't like you because she thinks I can like you. I mean, sure, any beautiful woman can try to steal a guy away, but what she's threatened by is the likelihood that I'd go for you," he stressed like it was the most obvious analysis.

"That's crazy."

"But it's a fact."

"Has she seen us together?" she asked amusedly.

"Well, we're together right now! You tell me."

"Besides, you're not a cheater."

He had to look away at that one. "Well…"

"You're not a cheater," she stressed with meaning. She pointed to herself. "And I'm not a homewrecker!"

"There's no home to wreck."

"You live with her, Luke."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

"So, that would make me a homewrecker," she continued. "That's not me in the least. And you know what the most important part of this is?"

He gave her his attention.

"We're coming up on ten years of friendship. If something was going to happen here," she said softly while gesturing between him and herself, "Don't you think it would have happened by now?"

To Luke's surprise, she actually waited for an answer to that while her captivating eyes penetrated him. He blinked focus away. "Of course," he followed casually.

"Okay." Beats of silence passed, and then she smiled. "So, let's go talk to Nicole. See if we can get you two back on track."

They'd drifted away from one another while talking, but Luke reclaimed his position in front of her as she tried to proceed. "I don't know what you think was supposed to happen with that little talk, but I still want you to stay down here," he said from his close proximity.

She had to smile. He was so serious and certainly had the whole intimidating big man thing going for him. But he was Luke, and nothing about him said scary. His scent continuously wreaked havoc with the woman in her, and the solid mass of man that it embodied wasn't exactly playing nice either.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked with some indulgence, some exertion.

"You're funny."

He frowned. "Funny?"

"Amusing?"

"Not much better, Lorelai."

"Okay, fine. You're not funny. In fact, you're scary. Terribly creepy. You're Steve Buscemi in…well, everything."

"Can you please go sit down?"

"I don't want to sit down," she responded in the same register he'd used. His voice was whispered out of defeat and plain tiredness. Her voice was just whispered.

They held eye contact for some time. When he gave up, it was in his expression. "Fine."

"Fine?" she asked with wide eyes.

"You win."

"I win?"

"What is this, the Whispering Gallery at Gol Gumbaz?"

"Sorry," she appeased with a touch to his arm. "This means I can come up, though, right?"

"Sure, let's act like I actually have a say in the matter," he mumbled.

Footsteps could be heard at the top of the staircase. Nicole's voice was next. "Hey."

Luke turned, and they both looked up at the dark silhouette. Nicole looked like some kind of temptress the way the above light hit her just right highlighting every guy-friendly part of her.

Lorelai subtly shook her head. Skinny blondes. Had to love 'em.

"Are you guys planning to come up or should I come down so we can all talk in the stairway?"

"We're coming up," Luke told her glibly.

"Great." She watched them for a moment as if they needed to be supervised. When they were halfway up, she turned and walked away.

Lorelai trailed Luke. When Nicole disappeared, she chuckled to herself. "Looks like Ms. Honey and a bite like Trunchbull."

"What?" Luke questioned over his shoulder in irritation. The whole scene was ridiculous.

"Nothing. Thinking out loud."

They walked inside the apartment to Nicole seated comfortably at the kitchen table. Lorelai, now further inside, looked from Nicole and back to Luke who was closing the door.

"Please, sit," Nicole offered.

Lorelai only took one step and got out half of "Sure" before Luke moved passed her waving her back. "No one's sitting. This isn't going to take long. I have to get back to work." He paused as he focused his anything-but-peaceful expression on his girlfriend. "And so do you."

Nicole looked from him to her. "How long were you two up here earlier?"

"Why?"

"Just ten minutes," Lorelai offered harmoniously.

She had to stop herself from glaring at Luke. "Okay, then. I have ten minutes."

Luke's arms were folded. He dropped them to his sides and slowly walked away while shaking his head. Nicole's focus went from his disquiet to Lorelai. Once Luke had walked behind her, out of sight, Lorelai's focus also turned from Luke's disquiet. To Nicole.

"As I'm sure you know, Luke and I have been-"

"Talk to me, Nicole, not her," Luke called from his new position by the coffee table, his back still turned.

Nicole's eyes drew to slits and she zoomed in on him. "I was actually under the impression that you weren't in this conversation anymore. Those are the kinds of conclusions people reach when a person turns their back on them."

"I'm listening," he said with nonexistent patience.

"Sure, you are. While showing me absolutely no respect."

He turned, then, and met her eyes. She'd sounded sincere with her words, and he found his missing patience. "Look, that wasn't my intention, and I'm sorry." He said that in one very meaningful tone and then went to another with his following words. "But this whole thing is pointless!"

"Not to me."

"Well, it is to me. And you know what else it is? Condescending. Very condescending. Calling us up here like this is the principal's office," he recalled with dissatisfaction. "Who the hell wouldn't have a problem with this?"

"What else was I supposed to do?" she asked with her eyes flitting to Lorelai.

"For one, not bringing Lorelai into it would've been appreciated."

She laughed. "Are you kidding me?"

Luke was beginning to hate that fucking laugh. "Kidding you with what?"

"Bringing Lorelai into it?" she mocked. "She's been in it! She's always been in this relationship! From the beginning! From the very beginning."

Lorelai held her hands out. "Hey, wait-"

"Okay, that's it." Luke quickly moved to Lorelai and took light hold of her elbow to lead her back downstairs. "Knew this was a bad idea." Lorelai appeared lost but eventually put one foot in front of the other.

Nicole stood. "Where are you going?"

"Away," Luke answered tightly.

She grew angry as she watched them both head for the door. "Okay, sure, yeah, take her out of here. Protect her from the possible verbal onslaught! Heaven forbid we sit up here and talk like three adults!"

"Attacking her is talking to you?" he asked as he reached the door.

"No one's attacking her!" she yelled.

That surprised him. She wasn't big on yelling. Volume increased when necessary, but she never yelled or lost her cool. He kept his hand on the knob as he looked to her. Lorelai closed her eyes, shook her head. Maybe coming up was a bad idea.

"Nicole, we need to talk. Me and you. Lorelai has nothing to do with it, so leave her out of it."

She sat. Gave up. "Fine."

"We're clear?" he asked, thrown at her acquiesce.

"No, Luke. We're not clear. But you got your free pass, so go."

Luke had no choice but to move past all the ambiguity. If he wanted to leave without more complication, there wasn't any other workable option. At the door, he caught sight of Lorelai's expression. She was bothered by the whole scene, and he couldn't blame her. She had stuff to say but looked torn on where to start or whether to say it at all.

He pulled her along.

They made it to the hall and Luke closed the door. He let out a tired sigh like there was relief on that side of the wall. He finally let her go and left her free to back up and pace in the small area.

"Let's go back downstairs," he suggested weakly.

"That didn't go very well," she commented.

He rolled his eyes to her. "Were you thinking we'd come up here, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya?"

"Or at least do a rip-roaring verse of What's So Funny Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding. I mean, I'm no Tony Robbins, but I can be pretty convincing when I want to be."

"Well, I think this is a little out of your league."

"I'll say."

"Let's just head back down," he urged again.

Lorelai faced him and looked at the door just past his head. "She's really tough, huh?" she gathered.

He scoffed at that. "You can say that."

She met his eyes. "She doesn't have the best idea of me in her head. That doesn't sit well with me. It's one thing to pick it up from vibes, but when it's said… God."

He looked back at the door helplessly before facing her again. "I know. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. But don't forget I tried to tell you."

Her forehead crinkled in apology. "I need to talk to her."

"I don't think that'd be a good idea," he said with a look that told her she should be able to determine that on her own.

She laughed a little. "Yeah, no, I know it wouldn't be. But I need to. I want to," she attempted in explanation. "I can't have this on my shoulders, you know? And I definitely can't let this happen to you. This is really really bad."

"Nothing's happening to me. Least of all something that you're responsible for. So, relax."

"How long have you two been arguing like this?" she asked with a kind curiosity.

Luke shook his head. The weeks flipped by in his brain like pages in a book. "Too long," he said wearily.

"How long is too long?" she couldn't help but ask.

"A long time, Lorelai. Just leave it at that."

Again, she looked past his head to the frosted plexiglass that read William's Hardware. "You're doing everything you can to work it out, right? Everything?"

"Where is this going?" he asked, growing irritated with the meddling.

She pointed with her whole hand to the apartment door, behind which, sat his girlfriend. "Because in there, it sounded to me like you've given up a little, and-"

"Okay, this conversation is over. Back downstairs. Let's go." He had taken a step, ready to storm down and leave her to follow. But unfortunately, he was stuck with the silly fear that if left alone, she'd go back inside and try to reason with Nicole. For that reason, he remained in front of the door and encouraged her to move along. It was difficult to remain in one place with that anger.

"—I know you guys have a whole lot of problems, what with…your thing and her thing-"

"Exactly! We have problems bigger than you, Lorelai! Understand that."

"-But you love her," she concluded with reason.

"How do you know who I love?!" he exclaimed for the sake of argument.

"Well, let me think about that for a non-second. Hello, I know from you! You said it!" She allowed him to get his full eye roll out before she continued with a softened voice. "And I think that's amazing. You know? I have it on good authority that it's not exactly easy to find someone who you are crazy about. I'm not thrilled that your girlfriend hates me, but I'll deal. Just…if you're going to fight, don't let it be over a one hundred percent baseless insecurity."

"What baseless insecurity?"

She pointed to him and then pointed to herself. "Us, Luke. We're friends. Do everything you can to make her understand that."

"I have!"

"It hasn't worked."

"I don't need you to tell me it hasn't worked! I know it hasn't worked! You had 30 seconds of proof that it wasn't working. I've had a bit longer."

"Just tell her I have a boyfriend. Tell her I'm engaged. Tell her I'm pregnant."

"Lorelai, you are not the problem here," he said through his teeth.

"Tell her I'm in love, too."

"What part of 'you are not the problem' are you not getting?"

"The love part is what will sell her, so you have to say that part, Luke. Do you need to write this down?"

"Apparently, I'm talking to myself."

"I hear you. I'm not the full problem, but I'm enough of it. If I wasn't, Nicole wouldn't have said so."

"What you are is a scapegoat. Like I said, let it go. This is giving me a damn headache."

"Can you just tell her I'm in a relationship?"

"No."

"I'm serious."

"No, I'm not telling her that," he snapped. "I don't play games like that."

"Neither do I, but this isn't going away. The only other option is for me to disappear, and I'm not okay with that. I'm not ready for that Friendship on the Rocks kinda drama."

"Damn it Lorelai, I almost slept with someone else two nights ago. She did sleep with someone else before that. When I say it's not about you, it's not about you!"

"I want to help you, Luke."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"What if you two break up? Then what?"

"Then at least this discussion will be over!" he let loose in frustration.

"Is that what you want?"

"More than anything!"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "To break up with her," she clarified. The enthusiasm let her know he was focused on his own suggestion. "Is that what you want to happen?"

"Don't you think that's kind of private?" he questioned with dripping sarcasm.

"It's just something to think about. Inspiration to fix this to the best of your ability."

"Get out of my relationship, Lorelai."

"I'm not in your relationship."

"Yes, you are. In fact, why don't you start by getting out of my hall?"

"You moved in with her, and you love her, so if there's a problem, fix it!"

"And now you're screaming at me," Luke noted wryly.

"I'm frustrated."

"You're overstepping."

"I'm helping."

"You're overstepping."

She took a much needed breath and calmed down. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go back to work."

"About Nicole."

He took a moment before asking, "Are you trying to piss me off?"

"Will you turn green? I despise green. So, no."

"Lorelai…" He rubbed his forehead. "If we break up, it won't be because of you," he quelled.

"What?"

He lost his cool and tossed his arms out dramatically. "That's what this whole thing is about, isn't it?! You acting like an obsessive maniac?! We talked twenty minutes ago up here and you weren't hounding me about fixing stuff! Soon as you're brought into the mix as some kinda—what is it? Homewrecker," he spewed distastefully, "you're all loony for commitments!"'

"That's crazy!"

"You're right, it is crazy! This whole thing is crazy! You feeling like you play a role in the outcome of my relationship is crazy! Nicole trying to give you a role is crazy! It's all one big ball of crazy!"

"Luke, I want you to work out your relationship because I care about you."

"Let me worry about my relationship, okay?"

The door opened suddenly, startling them both. Luke stepped to the side as Nicole came out. She left the door open and stepped past them without making contact. She had her purse to leave.

Luke frowned at the silence. Flashed confused eyes to Lorelai's uncomfortable ones. "Headed back to work?"

She turned to face him, then. A very artificial smile painted across her lips. "Do you know what I find incredible?" she asked garishly. Luke dropped his head and rubbed his eyes. "I get your back. Every time. I try to talk to you, and I get your back."

"That's not true."

"But here you two stand arguing in the hallway loud enough for everyone to hear. I get your back in there," she stressed. "And she gets the argument out here." Luke met her eyes. "What exactly do I have to do to get that argument, Luke?"

Luke held her stare. Didn't say anything. He thought about what an amazing woman she was. So amazingly brilliant…at changing history. Toggling facts. And she always brought the house down with those closing arguments. Conveniently, she forgot the mornings they woke up with strained voices, not from wild sex, but from face-to-face blowouts. There was no face-to-backs in the mix back then. He didn't intend for there to be any in present day either. But sometimes, there just was. The more her ability to reason and listen went south, the more his endurance waned.

Nicole sighed into the long quiet. "When will you be home?"

"I don't know." At that answer, she let her displeasure show, so he came with a more concrete response. "Around eight."

"Eight?"

"I'll work it out. We need to talk."

"Don't we always?" she followed calmly. She blinked away from him, turned, and continued along, not acknowledging the other person there.

"Uh bye, Nicole," Lorelai said naturally.

"Bye, Lorelai." She didn't slow or turn.

Lorelai looked at Luke and offered a look of kindness to offset the tension. "Bet she meant that from the heart," she shared.

Luke's expression grim, he showed no humor. "I wouldn't bet if I were you."

He closed the door and told Lorelai one last time to go on downstairs. That time, he led the way.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

In bed, Luke blinked up at the ceiling.

He'd been asleep, and now he was awake.

Asleep, he saw Nicole. Heard her baiting him, berating him, laughing at him, telling him how much of a man he wasn't. It was constant and disturbing. She didn't act that way outside of his dreams. Therefore, his psyche was to blame in a major way. Despite that, her dream persona didn't feel discordant. It didn't feel like he was creating a polar version of the woman he knew. His emotions from that trickled over into real life. As unfair as that was, and he knew how unfair it was, he had a feeling if he was happier, it wouldn't be an issue. If he was happier with her. Happier with how he behaved toward her. Happier with them. All blame shifted to her when his eyes closed. He didn't understand what caused that to happen.

She wasn't a bad person, after all. Just a different person. There was no meshing of who they were as people.

Luke felt Nicole move beside him. Not a stir in her sleep, but more of a frustrated shift that suggested she was annoyed at her inability to sleep. Until then, he assumed she had been asleep.

Their night together started at eight like he promised. He walked inside, expecting to bump heads with her long enough to prove that their relationship still had a pulse, and then he expected to leave. Back to Stars Hollow. He knew the likelihood of her not wanting to deal with him after heated conflict. But what'd transpired was nothing close. He had walked in to find her reading on the living room sofa. She told him she was tired. Exhausted, actually. 'I'm exhausted,' she'd said. 'I had a lot of things to deal with at the office today, so I'd rather put this on hold. Go on and take a shower and get yourself something to eat. Got the bed ready in case you'd prefer to just go there.'

Luke chose bed and bath only. She joined him in the bed the moment he climbed in. She clicked off the lamp on her side, and before he could reach over to hit his light, she leaned over him to do it herself. With her body heavily on his, he grew still. He went from soft to hard in his pants as her perfect breasts slowly moved back across him. She was on her way to her side of the bed, so he waited for the process to be completed. She stopped before it could be. Touched him down there and made his eyes flutter.

Two long months. He couldn't deny how great it felt. But his physical self and his mental self were in two totally different places.

'Nicole.'
'Shhhh.'
'Nicole, no.' He moved her hand. 'This isn't happening.'

She moved to her side without another word. Luke sighed. Turned away feeling crappy. He wondered what Lorelai was doing. Thought about whether he had remembered to tell Caesar to double check the freezer lock. Thought about whether blue balls could kill a man. Tried to remember if they had enough juice in the fridge to make a breakfast shake. He thought of a hundred different things before sleep came.

The nightmares started. Lorelai's face mysteriously appeared on a cloud. Luke took too much interest in that cloud, so Nicole wasted no time getting rid of the distraction. She made it vanish with a snap of her fingers and was more than happy to do so. From there, it was dreadful.

Luke looked over at the clock and saw that it was still early in the night. He was cautious about moving too much out of fear that she'd realize he was awake. So, he remained awake and frozen in place.

When she spoke, it startled him.

"Can't sleep either, huh?"

With the cat out of the bag, he finally moved to get more comfortable. "Yeah, I'm on my way back. Just kinda popped awake, ya know?"

"Another nightmare?"

"Something like that." He sighed, now turned on his side. "How'd you know I was awake?"

"Learned your breathing pattern a long time ago."

The corners of his lips turned down briefly as he showed the darkness how impressed he was with that. "Why are you up?"

"Can't turn my mind off."

"Yeah, been there before."

She paused. Stayed turned away from him as he stayed turned away from her. "I've been thinking about us a lot."

"Oh, yeah?" he followed blandly. First a pleasant exchange and now, a fight. Surely, that's where that was headed, and he knew that.

"Just wondering. Thinking. Trying to determine how near the end we are." She sighed. "How near the end are we?" He said nothing in the following seconds, so she went on to say, "Because it feels like we're hanging on by a thread."

There was more quiet before his words came. "I don't know, Nicole."

"Does it feel that way to you?"

"Sometimes."

"And other times?"

He thought of the kind answer, the non-trouble causing answer, and finally the true answer. "I've been thinking that it'd probably be best if I moved back to my place." That time of night called for stillness. But with two people lying awake in bed, it wasn't supposed to be as still as it got right then. "Nicole?" Luke called.

"I heard you."

"You don't have anything to say?"

"To you saying that you want to move out? Yes, I think I can think of something to say to that. While I'm trying to make sense of things, it sounds like you have everything figured out. If I wanted to be brutally honest, I could bring to light how to first move out, you would have to really move in."

"I don't want to fight."

"Neither do I."

"This isn't working, Nicole."

"You haven't touched me in months. Maybe that's why it's not working."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Maybe I do."

"Can you honestly say I'm the love of your life?"

"You're the man that I love."

He didn't come close to swooning over that revelation. "Love would have stopped you from sleeping with another man," he revealed brazenly.

She looked over her shoulder. That certainly hit a nerve. "You stopped yourself from sleeping with another woman, and I'm willing to bet that love didn't factor into it much. So, don't tell me what love sanctions."

"What do you mean by that?"

She scoffed. "As if you truly don't know; what I mean is, you don't love me."

"What?" He turned and sat up, prompting her to do the same.

"No one's grading you, Luke. No one's looking for you to say the perfect thing and do the perfect thing all time. You don't love me. You know it, and I know it. Just because I'm the idiot who gives you her heart, it doesn't mean you have to pretend that I have yours."

"Come on, Nicole," he disputed. She waited for him to finish. Saw as he took cover in the darkness. He banked on commentary from her, but when she didn't give it, it was clear he didn't have a true argument to make.

She finally went on. "Do you have any idea how many men want me?"

"Ah, jeez," he said looking away.

"No, Luke, you don't know. You can't know. I can't walk half a block without some guy chasing me down. All of that, and this is what I come home to. I don't deserve this."

"What exactly are you coming home to?"

"Being treated like this."

"Like what?"

"Don't act dense. It's infuriating when you do that."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Nicole." Said with his jaw tight.

"Out there, I'm desired. Here, with you, I'm made to feel repulsive."

"Repulsive?" he spewed aghast. "I don't want to have sex with you because you cheated on me! If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you had completely erased that small detail from your memory!"

"For the last time, we were broken up. I did nothing wrong."

"That's not the point, Nicole. You should know that's not the point, but you refuse to see it. We've been having this same argument for weeks. Weeks. Where has it gotten us?"

"That rests on your shoulders, Luke. You can't let anything go. Do you see me throwing your little indiscretion in your face? No. But I could! And we most certainly were together during that, so it'd be nice if you kept that in your memory the next time you want to bring up something that happened when I was single," she ended pointedly. "And I told you I regret that. I really wish you'd drop it."

He stared at her in the darkness.

"What?" she asked. She was clearly frustrated.

Luke looked away. Was so at peace with the solid direction of his thoughts. "It's done. That's the last time I'm bringing it up."

"Do you mean that?"

"I definitely mean it."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, Nicole." His tone was serious and got even more serious. "This relationship isn't working for me. I'm moving out. Tomorrow."

"All because I won't grovel?! Over something that I didn't do?!"

He climbed from the bed. "I'm not talking about this anymore. I'm sick of talking about it. I'm two seconds from going crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean losing my mind."

He had clicked on the light and was now at the closet.

Her mouth was open as she followed him with her eyes. She wasn't often at a loss for words. "What are you doing?"

"Getting dressed."

She checked the time. "At 1:39 in the morning? Where are you going?"

He grabbed his shoes, realizing he didn't need to change. He had on a shirt and sweatpants. He was decent, and in that moment, that was enough. He sat at the foot of the bed to put on his shoes. "Stars Hollow. Maybe a hotel. Who knows? All I know is I can't stay here."

She focused on him from behind. "You can't stay the night here? Is it that painful?"

"I can't do this anymore, Nicole. Okay? It's not working, and I'm about to lose my damn mind. I'm talking insane asylum here."

"Because of me," she said in a neutral and detached tone.

"No."

"Don't lie."

He sighed and turned. "I'm sorry if this is shocking to you, but honestly, I don't know why it would be. We argue all the time! Even before what you did. After it happened, it just got worse. And I'm tired of it. What kind of a relationship is that?"

The look she gave him could cut glass. "You argue with Lorelai. Do you plan to break up with her, too?"

He shook his head. And on that note…

Nicole watched him turn and stand before heading over to the nightstand for his wallet. "Sit down and talk to me." He looked at her silently as he stuffed his wallet in his pocket. "Luke."

"I'll have to come back tomorrow for my stuff."

"You know what? Fine. It's your choice. If you want to leave, then leave." He headed for the bedroom door, and she yelled after him. "Don't think I'll be sleeping alone for very long. Before you walk out of this house, I suggest you think long and hard about what this means. There is no coming back."

"Bye, Nicole."

"Same to you. You'll be replaced by the end of the week."

Luke barely registered that threat. He suspected her pride was hurt. Or maybe she was heartbroken, if what she said about loving him was truly real. He honestly didn't know. For all he knew, she had her one-night stand on speed dial and had her finger grazing the button at his exit. He snagged his keys and kept walking as Nicole stepped up both the disparaging remarks and the volume of her flurry. Made his dream a reality.

He put distance and finally, a front door between that irreverence and himself.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

'I'm going out of town for a few days to visit some friends. I've been putting it off, and…well, I decided to stop doing that. I'm leaving in an hour. I'll be back in two or three days. Maybe four. I've got to clear my head. I'm not telling you this as your girlfriend because believe me, I heard you last night. Or this morning… Was that really just a few hours ago? It feels like days. However long ago it was, I know your position. I'm only calling to let you know you have freedom to come get your things. I won't be home. As for the house, everything's in my name except for the utilities. So, I'll be calling you in the next week or two about that and also to reimburse you for whatever I need to reimburse you for. We'll hash out the details. I won't make this difficult, and of course I know you won't so it should be fairly painless. Okay, I think that about covers it. I'll talk to you when I talk to you, Luke. Oh, and I want to say…I'm sorry. For…well, for my part in the whole thing. Take care of yourself.' Beep.

Fresh from his shower and clad in only a towel, Luke stared at his answering machine as he stood dripping water to the floor. He pressed PLAY again. The voice belonged to Nicole, but the attitude? He most certainly was not expecting that. After a full replay, he moved over to his closet in thought mode.

Following his departure earlier, he worried if he'd been too callous. He didn't want her heartbroken, and he certainly didn't want there to be enough resentment to where she'd begin losing herself to exact some sort of revenge.

Her message brought his stress level down. He'd been prepared for anything that day. What led her to do what she did, he didn't know, and whether or not she meant it would only be determined with time. But for now, he was grateful.

He was left with only his failure to stomach. Luke never took failure lightly, and in regards to his relationship, the resulting failure, he felt, was undoubtedly his own fault. He had taken real feelings and stretched them beyond their limits. Had passed a strong devotion off as love while telling himself that it was close enough. He couldn't say the word love but he'd certainly indicated that he was in that place with her.

She would say it, and he would say it back. Me too, Nicole. And he kept saying it. Made the biggest choice of his life to move in with her on that sorta love. After moving in together, their relationship spiraled, and it was never him trying to make love work. It was always him attempting to work toward love.

He saw that now. Had established it as truth on his early morning drive back to his diner apartment.

Had he just been honest with himself, there would have been no grand proclamations or changes to living situations. A breakup following that big of an investment is what made it a failure. It could have just as easily been only another link in his life story, another respectable attempt at finding The One.

Life lessons for the road ahead, he supposed.

Luke dried himself and put on a clean undershirt and boxer briefs. His shower had been more of a way to pass time and relax himself. The diner was open thanks to his trusty staff, and he planned to be down there to assist in the near future. It was fifteen after seven. He hadn't been back to sleep. The five hours of sleep he'd gotten before the nightmare kicked in at Nicole's was plenty. So, upon coming home he had cleaned the kitchen, listlessly stared at some infomercials, reminded himself four times how it was too early for a beer, and then had finally gotten up and prepared a casserole to be baked that night.

He went to his top drawer and pulled out a pair of socks. Sat on his bed as he unfolded them to put on. He thought about how if Nicole was up that early, more than likely she had not gotten any rest since the fight. Understandable. Based on the 180 she'd done, she had likely stayed up trying to shove things into perspective. Remembering that she hadn't gotten any sleep before their fight either, Luke had to consider if she was planning a road trip. Her friends were in Ohio.

He rolled his eyes. She couldn't possibly be that stupid. Besides, road trips weren't her style. He knew that, and he still got irritated knowing he'd be bugged by it until her safety was confirmed.

He pulled his socks on hurriedly and went for the phone. After three rings, Nicole answered.

"Hello?"

Luke shifted. "Hey, it's me," he said gruffly.

"Yes, I know," she said cautiously. "Why are you calling?"

"I, uh, got your message a few minutes ago."

"Okay…"

"Finally going to see your friends from law school, huh?"

"Yeah, I am. Luke, what's going on? Do you have a problem with the message? Because I was actually trying really hard to be-"

"No, no, the message was good. Thanks for being cool about this."

"Cool's a stretch. But my other options wouldn't have been in anyone's best interest, so I opted for sanity."

"Yeah, well…thanks for that."

Nothing was said for a few seconds.

"Look, I said everything I needed to say on the machine, so…is there a reason for the call? I have to finish packing before my taxi gets here."

He jumped in at that. "Oh, so you called a taxi," he noted with satisfaction. "That's good. So, that means you're flying, then, right?"

"As opposed to hitchhiking? Yes, I'm flying."

He rolled his eyes. "As opposed to a driving," he corrected.

"A road trip?" she question absurdly. "Who over the age of 25 takes road trips? That's why man invented airplanes."

"Well, some people would definitely prefer them," he stated as he instantly thought of one woman.

"Well, not this one," she noted.

Luke nodded. "Okay, well, I'll let you go. Have a good trip. And I'll talk to you in a few days. You can just give me a call since I don't know when you'll be back. And we can talk about…what we need to talk about…concerning all the…official stu-"

"Okay, Luke, I'll call you," she interrupted, promptly shutting off his uncomfortable ramble.

"Okay."

"And," she added after a pause. "I'll try to get some rest on the plane. I promise I won't get behind the wheel until I do."

He shrugged like that was the last thing on his mind. "Yeah, okay. If that's what you wanna do…"

She shook her head fondly. Told him bye. Luke hung up the phone when she did. He looked down at his undergarments with a sigh and ran both hands through his wet hair.

He thought, again, of Lorelai.

Smiled as she came back to him instantly. She was definitely the road trip type. In her eyes, a quick boring flight would never stand a chance against the possibility of running out of gas. The stops at every back road fruit stand despite the reality of her not liking fruit. The singing at the top of her lungs. The hourly stops to stock up on snacks. The unending car games and fits of laughter as the wind blew her hair all over her face, forcing her to do the ear tuck every five seconds while she scoffed at the suggestion to just put up the window. Oh how the list could go on.

Luke found her to be a pleasant distraction. He dressed in a daze. Was ready to start the day in no time.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Luke waited until lunchtime to go to Litchfield.

He took a suitcase and two boxes. All of his belongings were accommodated. It didn't take long. The process was over in half an hour. He was back in Stars Hollow before the lunch crowd dispersed.

It was around four in the afternoon before it finally dawned on Luke that he was obsessing about Lorelai's visit. He was just used to her, is all. She was a coffee fiend, and he'd grown accustomed to seeing her at least twice a day. That day, he hadn't seen her at all.

He wanted to fill her in on all that'd happened with Nicole. She'd no doubt want to stick her nose in his business, forcing him to tell her how things had gone after the confrontation, but on this day, she wouldn't have to. After all that'd taken place, Luke wanted someone to run things past. In his head, that someone looked a lot like Lorelai. His relationship decision wasn't flexible but he still wanted her take.

She drove past the diner sometime later. She beeped her jeep horn and got his attention. When she waved, about eight people in the diner waved back, Luke not one of them. He just looked at her in confusion as she drove on by. Ten seconds later, the phone rang.

"Luke's."

"Did you see me?"

It was Lorelai. He automatically looked outside, but of course she was gone. "Course I saw you. What's with the beeping? And where are you going?"

"Headed home. I'm meeting Rory for shopping."

His mind went straight to Rory's inconvenience. "Why don't you two just meet at the mall? Doesn't make sense for her to drive here from school only to hit the highway again."

"I am meeting her there. I have to run home really quick. I still have work all over me."

He shrugged. "Oh."

"So, why didn't you wave; humor me a little?"

"I'll do better next time," he promised in a deadpan.

"Sorry I didn't drop in today. I had a crazy day, so I wasn't able to. I know how your day centers around me and all," she ended superfluously. "So, I thought I'd drive past and wave to my subject –that's you—like a great queen is supposed to do."

"Well, I figured I'd ignore you like a great renegade is supposed to do."

"I think I'd make a great queen," she mused.

"Of course you think that."

"But then I'd have to develop an accent. The English one is taken, which sucks because that's the only one I can do."

"I've heard your English accent."

"And?"

"You're better off picking another one."

"Is this how you speak to your queen?"

"Well, if you didn't like that, you're going to hate this. I'm working so get to the point of this call before you get the royal dial tone." He'd already held up a 'be right with you' finger to two customers. He kept up the front with Lorelai, but in reality, he wasn't rushing to end the call.

She shook her head. "No point. Just a quick hey. Missed your scowl today. Thought I'd pop over and scare the bejesus out of you with my horn."

"Accomplished," he responded with a hint of a smile.

"Good."

"Anything else…before you go spend way too much money on clothes you really don't need?"

"Nope, nothing else. I'll be in tomorrow so have my coffee ready."

"Don't I always?"

"Yes, you do," she admitted. "I've taught you well."

"Bye," he followed with an eye roll.

She laughed. "Bye, Luke."

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Luke pulled his cell phone from his back pocket as he looked out at the few late night customers in the diner. There was an hour and a half left til closing. Caesar had the radio on low in the back.

Luke dialed a number and put the phone to his ear and lowered his eyes to the floor thoughtfully.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Lorelai. It's Luke."

"Oh, hey! What number are you calling me from?"

"It's this cell phone," he answered with distaste like he had no association with it at all.

"Gotcha. You know you're totally about to be saved, right?"

"What?"

"Your number, Luke. Not your soul."

"Oh, okay. Well, that's fine, I guess."

"It's a done deal. So, what's up?"

He pointed over his shoulder to the kitchen as if she could see him. "I was in the diner here, and I overheard a traffic report on Caesar's radio saying there was an accident on I-11 a little while ago. I know you take that route to Stars Hollow and everything so, just…wanted to check to see if you'd gotten home okay."

"Aw, well aren't you the caring-est Care Bear in the whole creepy bunch," she cooed.

"Jeez," he mumbled.

She chuckled and sobered. "I'm okay. I made it home before all of that happened, so I was lucky."

"Oh, good. That's great."

"Thanks for checking on me."

"It's not a big deal."

She smiled. "How was your day?"

The question was nice. She'd said it like she was tuning in, really ready to listen to every moment of his day. He didn't want to take too much of her time, though. "Repetitive. You know how it is."

"Oh, sure. I know exactly how it is. You have Luke's and I have my fictional restaurant. Which, surprisingly enough, is still being investigated for serving up equal portions of salmonella and unintended Cajun because even in play world, I have absolutely no business handling other people's food."

"Jeez. You know what I mean."

Again, she smiled. "Yes, I know what you mean, Man of Few Words." They fell into a brief and comfortable silence. "So, are you hitting the road tonight, heading home to Litchfield? Is it my turn to worry about you?"

He cleared his throat. Oh yeah…that. "Uh, no I'm staying here tonight."

"Oh?" she followed with an obvious curiosity.

"Yeah. It's a long story."

She paused to think of words. "Do…you want to talk about it?"

"We will."

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

He found that amusing. "Really."

"Tomorrow?" she suggested.

"Yeah, tomorrow's good."

"Great," she said with appreciation.

"Okay, I'll let you go. See you tomorrow, Lorelai."

"Definitely."

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

The next morning, Luke was up early. The last few days had been irregular. He'd been in and out of the diner dealing with problems that he was officially done dealing with. Not to mention the commute that he had never cared for. That was done as well. He felt rested after taking his half an hour of sleep back.

He showered, dressed, and was down to start prep in the diner right on time. He only used the kitchen lights when working in the back. Five minutes until opening, he headed out front, hit the bright lights, flipped the blinds, and unlocked the door.

He'd barely made it behind the counter again before a customer was coming inside. He didn't bother to turn.

"The usual, Kirk?"

"Only if his usual consists of enough coffee to stock at least two or three teacher's lounges."

Luke looked over his shoulder into Lorelai's bright and smiling face.

His eyebrows drew together. "Why the hell are you up at six in the morning?"

"I was hearing weird noises in my house."

"Really?"

"Well, I thought they were weird noises. Turned out, I had left the TV on downstairs. While I was up, I thought I'd start a pot of coffee, and then I thought 'why settle for this mediocrity when I can dress, travel, and pay for better'? Pay is a figure of speech, by the way. I refuse to pay when the sun isn't even up yet. My wallet is afraid of the dark."

"How kind of you. Allowing me to give you free coffee…" He started a pot as she settled onto her stool.

"I'm going to let you make me some free pancakes, too. Don't make a big deal out of it. Your speedy service is thanks enough."

He rolled his eyes. "That all you want?"

She smiled sweetly. "That'll do."

"Okay."

Lorelai started talking before he could head to the kitchen. "So, last night, you were telling-"

The door opened again, and Luke's usual first customer of the day walked inside. Kirk looked from Lorelai to Luke, both of whom had focused on him. He didn't seem pleased to be number two to Lorelai's number one.

"Morning, Kirk," said Lorelai.

"When'd you get here?" He didn't mean to be rude, but he was.

"Just a second ago."

"I'm usually the first customer," he pointed out sourly.

Lorelai nodded. "Well, if it's any consolation, I'm sure you'll always be the first customer in Luke's heart."

That got an immediate eye roll from Luke. "It doesn't matter who gets here first. There's still plenty of seats this early in the day. So, sit," he told Kirk. "And I'll bring you something to eat."

Kirk obliged. He sat down the counter from Lorelai and clasped his hands in front of himself studiously.

Luke looked back to Lorelai, narrowing his eyes at her for the comment she'd made. She smiled. Picked up where she'd been interrupted a moment ago.

"Anyway, like I was saying, last night, what were you going to tell-"

Luke shook his head, cutting her off with that gesture. She raised her eyebrows, and he pointed out Kirk to her with a casual glance. Lorelai gave a silent 'oh' as she showed understanding. He wanted privacy. Of course, he wanted privacy. She looked around a little. Should they go off somewhere? After all, she'd gotten up early for this…

Luke cleared it up before she could ask. "Later."

"Okay," she said with a nod. She looked down. Figured 'later' wouldn't drive her too insane.

Luke breathed deeply and pointed back to the machine. "Alright, coffee'll be ready in a minute. I'll go start on breakfast for both of you," he told them.

They both nodded, and he left. Lorelai looked over at her neighbor, ever so stoic and…in attendance.

Oh, Kirk.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

That afternoon, Lorelai came into the diner during a crowded lunch hour. She rolled her eyes automatically. A smile promptly covered her frustration as her Stars Hollow friends greeted her from various areas in the room.

She found a stool and sat as she waited for Luke to finish up with a few customers.

He passed right by her twice before he noticed that it was her. His eyes were fixed on his activity, not any individual faces. When he finally glanced at her, he did a double take and spoke. "Hey. How long you been there?"

"Not too long."

"Is this a coffee break or you eating?"

She ran her hand through her hair in thought. "Uhh, coffee's good. I'm always up for that," she said with a smile. "I came to talk, though." She looked around intentionally. "But from the looks of things, I didn't make the brightest timing choice."

He glanced around, too. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Talk about what, though?" he asked with genuine confusion.

She tilted her head, gave him a look. His eyes narrowed more. He was very busy and his mind was very occupied. Clearly.

"About…Litchfield…Nicole," she reminded as quiet as she could.

"Oh!" It came to him at once, and he appeared to shame himself for that airheaded moment. It made Lorelai smile. He thought for a second. "I don't know when I'll have time to do that. What about tomorrow?"

She rejected that immediately. That was too far away. "We can't just run up and talk now?" she asked while pointing to the staircase.

"Not now," he said kindly. "I can't do that to these guys," he said, referring to his employees.

She leaned in. "You want to just come over to my house?"

"When?"

"I don't care." She really didn't.

He laughed a little. He figured he'd made her just as crazy with the whole Nicole fiasco as he was. "I don't have to do that. You'll probably be okay just coming here tonight close to closing. Or even after closing. That'll be good."

She looked at him for a moment. "You're not going to Nicole's tonight either?" she asked to be sure. He shook his head. She nodded in respect for whatever was going on with that situation. "Why don't you just come to my place? I want to talk to you. And that way, you can't get out of it," she ended jokily.

He sighed. Acceded. "Okay, I can do that. Tonight?"

"Whenever."

"It'll have to be tonight."

"That'll work."

"And it'll be late," he warned. "Because I-"

"Luke, just make sure you show up. I don't care when."

He smiled. "Alright, fine."

She got to her feet. "I guess I'll be going. I'll see you later."

"What about your coffee?"

"Bring it with you," she instructed with a wink. She waved and headed for the door.

Luke got back to work.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Luke made his way up the driveway on foot. It was close to eleven at night. He really hadn't meant for it to be quite that late before he dropped by Lorelai's house, but that's the way it'd worked out. Despite her telling him that he could come at any time, he'd opted to call from the diner to be sure it was okay.

He chose to walk. A late night visit to Lorelai's place would surely garner attention if his rumbling pick-up pulled up to the house with the hour approaching midnight. He just wasn't in the mood to deal with the gossip.

He climbed the steps and rapped at the door.

Lorelai answered in good time. She opened the door, greeted him, and waved him on inside with energy that contradicted the very late hour. She wore a jacket over an orange and white cap sleeve shirt, a shapely pair of grey fleece pants, and some footies.

"I didn't hear your truck," she noted.

She'd turned away from the door. Luke closed it and followed her to the kitchen. "I walked."

"Why?"

"Just felt like it," he answered lightly.

"No wonder it took you so long. I had no idea you were John Francis'ing it over here so late at night."

She had the scent of candles everywhere, and it smelled amazing. A composite of fragrances that complimented one another. The TV was loud and on some reality show. The house was brightly lit. Very homey and comfortable.

Lorelai stopped at the coffee machine and poured herself mug number…who knows. Luke moved over to her kitchen window and peered out. He shrugged as she mentioned that he forgot to bring her coffee. He hadn't forgotten. He just chose not to since it was so late. She turned and leaned her rear on the counter as she watched him study the outside and tug at the short curtain that only served a decorative purpose. She sipped her coffee.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Aren't you paranoid having nothing over your window this late? Someone can just stand out there in the yard and see everything you're doing in here. And it's too dark out there to see them, so It'll just be a one-way creep show."

"Who would want to stand out there looking into the kitchen?"

"Any pervert looking to get his jollies," he argued.

"I've heard of some pretty weird fetishes but getting off on skillets and dishpan hands? Now, you're just making stuff up."

He looked into the yard again. "I think you could use a light right there anyway," he said with a point. "It's too dark."

"Then, put one up," she said flippantly.

He turned. "I will."

She chuckled at that. "That wasn't an actual request, Luke."

"One with a motion sensor. They're a pretty good investment. It'll come in handy for when you're getting out of the car and stuff, too."

She set her mug down. "Stop looking for ways to fix up my house, Bob. This visit is about you."

"Who the hell is Bob?"

"The Builder," she scoffed.

"Is that supposed to clear things up?"

She gestured to the table. "Have a seat. You want anything to drink or snack on?"

He leaned back against the counter and folded his arms. "No thanks," he graciously declined on all offers.

She shrugged. "Okay, you stand. I'll sit." She collected her cup and went to do just that. She pulled out a chair, put it facing Luke and sat. Luke looked down at her as she crossed her legs comfortably and proceeded to drink and drink.

"What time do you go to bed?" he asked after long seconds of studying her.

She lowered the mug and set it on the table. Took a relaxing breath and squeezed a hand smoothly between her crossed thighs while propping the elbow from her free arm on the table. "Um, I don't know, it varies. Probably around one. Why do you ask O-Tired-One-Who-Thinks-If-He-Sits-He's-Going-To-Fa ll-Asleep-In-My-Kitchen?"

He smiled at the truth in that. She smiled when he did.

"Just wondering since you're chugging down all that coffee like you have a final exam to study for."

"My life is a final exam, Luke."

"Sorry, didn't realize."

They held contact long enough for a slow smile to creep onto her lips. Luke bit his lip and looked down with a head shake.

"So, what's going on with this Nicole situation?" she asked as if the topic was an appetizer and not the main course.

He looked at her again. "We broke up," he finally told her.

That shocked her, and she didn't know why. She'd been prepared to hear that, but something in the back of her head also told her that Luke just may make the choice to go the distance with her. Despite how she felt about that, she knew that relationships were often messy and featured low levels of common sense.

Luke went on. "I drove to Litchfield that night, and we got into it for the hundredth time. I was just tired of dealing with it. It was one moment, one second where it was like I'd gone as far as I could go. I got up and left in the middle of the night. I couldn't stay there for another second."

"Wow."

"Yeah, I know. It was a lot of different stuff. She—and it's not just her; it's me too." He looked off. "But at times, I could just really see myself not liking her. In the future, I mean. And even now, too, I guess you could say. She was just really..." He made a face, trying to think of a word.

"I know what you mean," Lorelai added kindly.

"You saw it, too?"

She shrugged a little, smiled a little. Luke rolled his eyes away.

"I got all my stuff out yesterday, so at least there's no more commuting. Thank god for that."

"You're officially back in Stars Hollow?" she asked with excitement. At his nod, she smiled bright. "Well, there's the ray of light in this whole thing. We got you back."

"According to her, you guys never really lost me."

"Oh, because you never really moved in," she determined easily.

He gave her a squint. "I did move in," he defended.

She frowned delicately and negated that with a shake of her head. "But as far as I'm concerned, it still counted as you moving, and I wasn't a fan."

"But I did move," he refuted again.

"How long did it take you to pack your things?" He looked at her and she smiled. "It's an innocent question."

"I don't have that much stuff. That's why it didn't take me long."

She found his offensiveness amusing. "Hey, I'm on your side, so let's not argue."

"She also said I didn't love her. That one hurt to admit," he grumbled.

Lorelai lost the humor. "Is that true?"

"That I didn't love her? Yeah, it is," he said. It wasn't fun saying that out loud. Knowing he'd have that unscrupulous blemish tainting his far-from-perfect record. He'd only loved one woman, and that was Rachel. He'd never even considered saying it to another girlfriend, and then Nicole came along and his head got involved.

"Did you think you loved her?" Lorelai asked.

"Sort of."

She stared at him for a long while. Luke looked at her off and on for a moment before asking begrudgingly, "What do you think of all that?"

She finally looked away and a smile appeared. "Why does it matter what I think?"

"I dunno," he said in honesty. "But it does," he ended quietly with meaning.

Once again, her eyes were going back to his. He was a tough guy and still, he had a hell of a knack for tender moments. She never wanted to take his words to a place the two of them had never gone. That couldn't happen. But sometimes, she wondered if that's what he wanted to happen. He was an interesting person, and oftentimes with him, her core was rattled. That's not something that happened easily. It didn't happen ever.

"I, uh, think…that I'm really happy you're back in Stars Hollow." She smiled at his obvious dissatisfaction with the response.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"You made the decision that you needed to make for you, Luke. I respect that. If you're happy, then I'm happy." She paused. "Relationships can be tough, though, so if you're looking for a relationship where arguments don't happen-"

"I'm not that naïve," he interrupted.

She nodded with relief. "Okay. Then, you're aces, Babe."

He looked into Lorelai's warm face. She really did get him. She knew how to engage him. No one did it better. She didn't bite her tongue, and that was how he preferred it. But she knew when and how to say things. Made sure that he came out still feeling like the man he was. Rachel was good at that. Lorelai was better. Nicole never even contended.

"You're a good person to talk to," he shared.

She was temporarily blindsided by that heartfelt gratitude. "So are you. I didn't do much here, though."

"Trust me, you did plenty. If I ever want to talk, I know I can talk to you. And…it's comfortable doing that, ya know?"

She smiled as she watched him shy away from her gaze. "Thanks, Luke," she added softly. "I hope you can always feel that way with me."

"I probably will."

"Good."

Lorelai stood up. Neither of them seemed fully capable of looking away. She blindly got her mug from the table and turned away from him. She walked back over to the machine.

Luke cleared his throat as she began topping off her coffee. "Well, I think you have the whole sordid story at this point."

"Sordid, huh?" she questioned idly before chuckling.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

She set the pot down and faced him again with her mug en route to her lips. She took a healthy sip and neared the table again. "It's still a clean break, you know. It's not like you two were married or had children." She set her mug to the table and walked over to where he was.

"I guess you could look at it like that."

"Yeah, it could've been way messier." She walked right up to the sink next to where he leaned, and she faced the window. It was sort of creepy being only able to see her reflection, not knowing if someone was standing in the open yard using the darkness as a shield. She looked over at him. He still had his back to the window. "Whose idea was it to move in together anyway?"

"Hers." Definitely hers. He'd just been the one to go along with it.

"And you didn't want to?"

He shrugged. "I thought it was a big step, but I did it anyway."

"Why?" She turned so that her hip was against the sink. Now facing him, she rested her hand on the counter between them.

"Honestly?" he asked as he glanced over at her.

"Yeah." He looked at her again, and she focused on his eyes looking into hers.

"Because I'm old," he answered.

Lorelai erupted in laughter. "What?"

He smiled at her reaction but roped it in quickly because what he was saying wasn't a joke to him. "I'm serious, Lorelai. I'm not 20 years old here. I admit I cared about her, you know? So, when she suggested it, I went with it. Being a bachelor is only acceptable up to a certain age. It's time for me to settle down."

"Okay, I get that, but ideally, it'd be with the right person," she countered. "Not just anyone who asks."

He smiled. "Well, she wasn't a desperate measure. We were in a relationship," he pointed out.

She sighed. Lightly bounced her hip off the edge of the sink as she crossed her arms. Had taken to watching his profile. "Next time, just follow your heart more."

"If there is a next time, you mean."

"There'll be a next time," she assured simply.

"Yeah, sure." Luke swept his hand across the empty kitchen before him. "If only I could decide which of these many women to choose from next."

She moaned her agony as if there was physical pain from those words. "Oh, you're breaking my heart," she mocked. "In case you didn't know, a pity part needs a soundtrack, and unfortunately, I skipped the violin in favor of the flute. Although," she added wistfully, "American Pie did a good job of ruining that for me."

He glanced at her again and then faced forward. "There's not many women in this town to choose from. You see how long it took me to find Nicole."

"Nicole isn't from here."

"Exactly." He smiled at the silence that followed.

"Well, Traitor, why don't you just go back to that field of blondes and make another selection."

He chuckled.

She sighed. "You're a great catch, okay? Any woman would be lucky to have you."

"Name one," he challenged. He looked at her briefly and looked away again. He never thought it was a good idea to hold her gaze too long. It was an easy thing to get sucked into because her eyes held unbelievable levels of appeal.

"Any one of us," she replied.

He met her eyes again. "Us?" he questioned with humor.

"Us, women," she clarified with a smile.

"Ah."

"Widen that bracket just a notch there, Mr. Singled Out. I couldn't have meant me."

"Of course not."

"I would never want you," she went on to say.

"Thanks." That dull tone was followed by him mumbling under his breath as Lorelai laughed beside him. He knew her well enough to know she was going somewhere with that, but he still didn't appreciate the brief implication.

"Just think about it, Luke. I wouldn't know the first thing to do with you. Look at you." She continued to do just that as he stared ahead. "You're a good looking guy; you're strong; my kid loves you; you're dependable; we've already got this awesome friendship going. Come on. There'd be nothing to break up with you over. You know more than anyone that I expect way less from my lovers."

"Your lovers?"

"That's what I call them. Except it packs a bigger punch when I have my leather bustier and furry handcuffs."

He smiled. "So, basically, I'm overqualified?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Bummer," he deadpanned.

"Maybe I'll up my standards one day."

"Well, be sure to hold onto my number," he went along indolently.

She lightly pushed away from the counter. Walked to the table and just took a moment to reposition her mug. "Is Nicole really upset over this?" she asked. She moved around the table to her chair and looked over at Luke for an answer as she took hold of the back of it and carefully pushed it back under the table.

Luke shook his head. He watched the legs of the chair as she moved it into its proper position, and then he looked to her. "She's okay." He smiled. "I probably wouldn't wanna go slipping off any rooftops if she was the only one up there to pull me up, though."

She smiled at the humor in that. Standing close to the chair, her eyes swept over him. She shifted on her feet a little. Met his eyes again. Her smile brightened in reassurance as she noticed him looking at her in the way he did when he was trying to read her. "Since you guys are broken up, I guess you can call up your friend from the other night and finish things."

That cut. He went from happy to hurt. The look on his face asked how she could say something like that. How she could imply that he was itching to complete the betrayal and how maybe he'd dumped Nicole for that very reason. He removed weight from the counter and dropped his arms to his sides. With those feelings, he no longer felt like staying. "Okay, I guess-"

Confident that he'd hear her out, she walked forward casually with a windy chuckle. She really had to laugh at herself for that one. "Oh my god, that…came out really stupidly," she wasn't ashamed to admit. Her hand went to his stomach as she lightly kept him in place. She looked up at him. "I didn't mean it like that at all, okay?"

His frown began to disappear. The comfortable placement of her hand sped that process right along. He leaned into the counter again and put his hands on the edges on either side of his body. His eyes dropped from hers and went to the floor.

"What I meant was…" She dipped and moved her head in the path of his eyes and succeeded in getting his focus again. Luke's heart sped up. Boy, was she close. "…you can move on if you want. With whoever you want."

He became increasingly nervous. She wouldn't allow him to look away, which meant one of two things: she underestimated the power of her beauty or she didn't underestimate anything, and she wanted to keep him off balance.

"Yeah, I can," he agreed low.

She nodded and took her hand away. "But that woman would be perfect," she said with a step back. "Because it makes sense that you'll need a rebound. It's common."

"Sex to get over a relationship?" he questioned her quietly.

She nodded, yes. Luke saw her swallow before her eyes swept over him yet again. He wanted to know what was going on. What was she considering? It couldn't possibly be what it seemed like… Not Lorelai. She'd become a pro at making sure moments like these never escalated.

"I don't operate like that," he told her.

She wet her lips.

Dear god.

She took more steps back, and Luke figured they were back on track. Back to the reality of him pretending that he didn't seek relationships only when the possibility of being with her got bleaker. Back to him acting as if friendship is all he ever wanted from her.

She didn't get far before she stopped with her footie-covered feet side by side. She swayed a bit. She was staring at him, and whatever she saw in him was seen in an instant. In his gaze, there was an attraction stronger than she would've guessed. More like a longing. It was scary and exhilarating to witness. He wasn't trying to hide it. Hell, maybe he couldn't. She wasn't exactly playing it safe, and she knew that. She wanted to act. That desire wasn't new to her, but for some reason there was now an absence of terror and excuses. It was different to be without them. It was freer. She'd reached her limit in wondering what it'd be like, and now she needed to know.

They had their chance, and ignoring it was the easiest option, but soon morning would come, days would pass, and another man would enter the picture for her. Another woman would enter the picture for him. And the chance would be gone for a while. Maybe the next time would come with the 'forever' label. Could she live forever not knowing?

She started the walk forward.

She asked herself if this is what she'd wanted when she'd asked him over. Was Nicole perfectly within her rights to not trust her intentions all along? Would this have happened down the line had he chosen a life with Nicole Leahy?

She had to wonder.

Her eyes remained locked on his as she walked up to him. Saw a taciturn man break for the first time. She'd never seen him want. Had certainly never seen him yearn. Seeing it made her feel equally powerful and weak. Lorelai touched his chest with both her hands. Rubbed there gently and then reached up to either side of his face. Luke brought his face closer to hers and placed his own shaking and eager hands softly on her lower waist, on the peak of her buttocks.

His eyes were beautiful. He had such beautiful eyes. His stubble was rough. The skin around it was softer than she expected. She was so aware as she touched him. Her breath washed over his face, and his eyes drew closed.

"No going back. You know that, right?" she whispered to him.

If there was a God, there certainly would be no going back. He nodded, feeling her caress his face more with her fingers. "No going back."

Lorelai knew that even if this was a mistake they were making, it was a mistake that was going to happen, regardless. She was tired of holding back. Tired of telling herself why it wasn't a good idea to want him. It wasn't just physical with him. It was some weird emotional draw that she didn't have a grasp on.

It was time for it to happen.

She closed her eyes and moved in with her lips. They hit a soft target. Luke's hands slid from her sides to her lower back at that connection. He settled against the counter more, automatically forcing their pelvises to make full and unbridled contact. The dance began. Luke brushed her tongue with his. For the first time, he had nothing negative to say about coffee. She reciprocated. There was a moan. A stroke of another tongue led to a brief round of sucking. They sunk into it further and continued with deep, sensual, and slow tasting. Luke's hands smoothed over her back, up her spine, and even along parts of her shoulders and arms. By that point they were pressed together heavily. When she started pulling away, Luke's hold on her loosened on instinct. He cooled their kiss down, getting one last swipe of his tongue in before he ended it. She moved away, hand already on the zipper for her cotton jacket. Looking hazily from his eyes to his lips, she promptly removed the extra layer of clothes. Realizing she wasn't done with the activity and hadn't changed her mind, Luke reached out and rubbed across her stomach as she removed her arms from the jacket and tossed it to the table behind her. She fell back into him as soon as the process was complete. She pressed herself to him tightly. Enfolded her arms around his neck as their mouths synched up once again. Luke resumed exploration of her back and her now, bare arms. She loved the feeling. Loved feeling him caressing her. She thought removal of the jacket would be better. It definitely was. But it wasn't enough.

How many times had she wondered what he was like?
How did he kiss? Was he feverish? Was he good at pleasing a woman? Did he prefer to make love or did he prefer a wilder brand?

Lorelai loosened her grip when Luke kissed his way to her neck. He made a trail, gently moved her hair away, and kissed until he found an area he really liked. As he began to gently suck, he found that she really liked it, too. His hand moved up the side of her body, and he grazed her breast. It wasn't exactly done on purpose. But a second later, he did it again and then cupped her tenderly. That was definitely done on purpose.

She was turned on. Was breathing through her teeth and giving off tiny moans of delight.

Through touch and sound, she let him know she wanted his talented tongue back against hers. Their kiss went deep again, and both Luke's hands went to her chest. No bra. He fondled both breasts fully before wrapping her tight again. Lorelai placed her thigh between his parted legs.

He went from half-flaccid to zero-flaccid. The kiss heated up.

Lorelai placed her fingertips in the waistband of his jeans, took a step back, and pulled him to follow. He pulled away from the kiss and looked at her. "What's wrong?" he asked breathily as he continued to be led.

She looked into his eyes as she continued to back up blindly. "Upstairs," she whispered.

"Upstairs?" he questioned just as quietly.

"First thought was right there," she said referring to the sink. She continued in that whispered voice out of fear she wouldn't recognize her own incredibly aroused voice if she spoke any louder. "But I should probably get that outside light before we go that route."

Luke nodded. Kept her from running into a wall before the upstairs climb finally began. He couldn't believe he and Lorelai were about to go to bed together. Everything so far felt perfect. Kissing her was better than he'd ever imagined it would be. Way he saw it, the only thing that could prevent them from being together was if they had no chemistry. Reality didn't always measure up to fantasy, and he knew that well. If the warm-up in the kitchen was any indication, chemistry was not to be a problem.

Luke moved in and kissed her with everything he had at the very moment they reached her bedroom and the very moment she went from pulling him by the pants to unfastening them. He allowed her to finish. By the time she worked the zipper all the way down, there was a mutual separation, and she moved her hands to his flannel. They met eyes, and the process slowed as there emerged an unexpected intimacy. Luke looked down and watched her fingers for a moment before looking back into her stunning and shaded blue eyes.

He patiently removed the outer shirt once she was done, and they kept the space when he tossed it to the floor. He remained in an undershirt. Lorelai's eyes went down to his waist and she admired the expansion of his boxer briefs. With her eyes there, he lowered his pants fully to give her the unobstructed view. Her eyes went back to his. He smiled, and so did she. Luke leaned low and undid his laces and took an impatient moment to take his shoes and socks off. That done, he removed his pants and stood back before her.

She took him in again. T-shirt and boxer briefs. She met his eyes once more, not letting on to how incredible a sight she thought him to be. She walked over and covered his lips with hers. Kissed him passionately for as long as they both could stand it. His erection pressed between them. He rubbed his palms from her back on down to her backside. Smoothly grasped each cheek and started grinding into her. They kissed deeper. When he backed toward the bed, she followed for as long as it took him to reach it. At the point, she let him sit, and she moved away to remove her clothes. At first confused by the separation, Luke happily turned attention to her body when she lifted her shirt up and over her head, revealing two erect nipples and an impossibly perfect stomach. Her horrible diet had a long ways to go before catching up to that body.

She slid her pants down.

Panties after that.

An immaculate trim. Seemed her style.

Absently, he took off his shirt and threw it off to the side as she approached. She came upon him and went for his lips. Luke rubbed her naked body as she leaned more of her weight into him causing him to fall to his back. She straddled his waist as they kissed with abandon.

Luke couldn't stop touching her. He rubbed her everywhere. She enjoyed having her nipples touched. His hand covered her breast, and her hand wrapped around his ensuring he didn't stop. His deep kisses were masterful and satisfying. She rode air and elicited moans from those deep savory kisses.

She lowered her body on him. Seemed to slide down ready to feel a different part of him on a different part of her. She felt the head of his shaft through the cotton of his underwear, and it made her whimper longingly as if the time to fix that would equal an eternity. Luke corrected that with haste. He laid her on the bed so gently and then counteracted that control when he pushed and yanked at the material like it was the bane of his life.

Lorelai laughed spiritedly.

He got them off and threw them down in triumph. Rolled back to her with a smile lighting his own face. She was gorgeous when she laughed. He kissed her chin and then her grinning lips. "Where were we?" he whispered. He lightly bit her lip, and the speed at which she got serious and slid her tongue between his lips, it was as if the last fifteen seconds hadn't happened.

Luke went from fondling her perky breasts to moving his hand down between the wet folds of her vagina. Her clit didn't need any enticement. She was plenty turned on already. He rubbed it with his finger and kept kissing her. She moved into his hand, and he stuck two fingers deep in her tight hole and watched her move herself up and down on the bed to gain true sensation. The longer he worked his fingers, the more she got into it. He needed to stop because the sight was bordering on being too much to handle. He was a man who'd been without for two months. He needed to stop but couldn't. The kissing got put on pause, and she stopped the energetic undulation. He had the rhythm going just right. She grasped his shoulder, tossed her head back, and moaned her pleasure.

Told him harder. He went harder.

Told him faster. He went faster.

He did all of that and still managed to keep a finger committed to her clit. For a long while, hypnotized by her sex face, Luke just stared into her face while breathing hard enough to suggest he was about to explode all over the place. It wasn't out of the question. She was incredible.

Finally snapping out of that zone, he leaned down and took her nipple in his mouth. The moan that came from over his head made him kick it into gear even more. He worked his hand harder and squeezed and sucked her nipple zestfully as he quenched his lustful appetite.

"Oh, god!"

His fingers went deeper.

"Oh, god!"

He slid fingers in and out of her wet hole faster and faster. He stopped sucking and sat up enough to extend his free hand to her clit. He worked it better. Worked it with more speed, pressure, and accuracy. He dedicated the other hand solely to penetration and was able to increase pleasure.

"Oh my god!"

She came with a strangled moan as she moved all limbs in an attempt to scoot away. But it was unnecessary. Her body had contracted and forced Luke's fingers out completely. He swallowed deeply at the excess saliva in his mouth. He looked at his hands covered in her juices, and he had to take a few deep breaths. He leaned next to her again and took her breast back in his mouth. She held the side of his face and eventually came down enough to really appreciate the feeling of that.

Luke moved his wet hand to his straining hard-on and ran it up and down, using the sweet juices to lubricate himself. He got on top of her and took advantage of the opportunity to kiss and lick both her nipples equally before Lorelai pulled his face up to hers.

He entered her as they created and held onto a blazing moment of focus.

Lorelai wrapped him tight with both legs and closed her eyes as he brought his mouth down upon hers in a soft kiss. He pulled back with his lips and hovered a bit, felt her breathe uneven breaths as he pushed in carefully and filled her halfway. He came out. Went back in with more of his length and she moaned in a heartbreaking timbre before releasing jagged breaths over his lips. He swallowed, eyes closed. She felt like a dream. Warm and silky and tight and accommodating. She touched his face with her hands, and he finally leaned back down fully and kissed her with a passionate tongue. He lifted his pelvis, paused as they melted into one another with fiery kisses. She lifted her hips, requesting he penetrate her again, and he came back down, this time filling her to the hilt. It was a lot to take, and she took it with a sexy long moan punctuated by her hands sliding to his sides.

Luke kissed her and took it easy for as long as he felt she needed it. As difficult as it was, he didn't mind. Slow sex came intertwined with slow kisses and intimate eye contact. At least with her, it did. He never knew how nice it could be. At least with her, it was. The adjustment didn't take long. He picked up on her preference and sought to bring her to climax. He was amazed at his ability to make it last. Considering who she was, considering how long it'd been, considering how she felt…

Luke pounded her and sucked her neck as he felt her nearing the end. She moaned deliciously with every thrust of his pelvis. One leg loosened and shook fiercely as she panted and dealt with her orgasm. The moment she came, Luke did, too. He growled and pushed as hard as he could, fighting to get as much pleasure as he could from those strong pulsating walls.

Fully drained, he collapsed, still being careful not to crush her.

She laughed a little.

"What's funny?" he asked breathily.

Full of energy, she wiggled her toes, the tops of which she could see as her legs stayed wrapped around him. "I had sex with socks on," she noted.

He looked at her, confused. "What?"

She ran her finger between his brows and to the tip of his nose. "My socks. I forgot to take them off."

"That's really random, Lorelai."

"Well, I just saw them." She rubbed her sock-covered feet up and down his legs for emphasis.

He smiled. This uninhibited post-coital smile that Lorelai instantly fell in love with. "Is that a first for you?"

"Socks?"

"Yeah."

"Of course."

"Why are you saying it like that? People have sex in socks."

"No, they don't. Most people hate that. We're talking the launching point for many a pet peeve."

"You're exaggerating."

"Have you or anyone you've known had sex in socks?"

"Why do you sound like you're advertising the next show topic for The Ricki Lake Show?"

She smiled. "Answer the question."

"No, Lorelai. No one has."

"Precisely. Because it's weird."

"So, why did you?"

"I didn't mean to."

"I see." He smiled, kissed her clavicle. "Find that you like it any better with socks?"

"Well, it was nice to not have cold feet."

"Maybe you're on to something."

"And I did manage to have the type of orgasm that I've been chasing since I was 20."

"Wow, that's a…long chase."

"These must be magic socks," she joked.

"They sound it," he stated blandly.

"I feel like I'm rambling."

"What's new about that?"

"But I'm not. It was a legitimate observation."

"Backed by years of scientific study, too, I bet."

"But I still feel like I'm rambling."

"Then, stop talking."

"And do what?"

"I dunno. Maybe be silent."

"You feel confident I can handle that?"

"Yeah, you can. Just take it in."

She mentally acknowledged the dirtiness in that suggestion and then moved past it. "Take what in?" she asked softly, knowing precisely what he meant.

He looked in her eyes for a moment and then moved in to kiss her throat. She swallowed, creating a passing wave of motion beneath his lips. He kissed again and again. "Take this in. Us. What happened tonight," he whispered to her.

She closed her eyes. She ran her fingers through his hair as his lips continuously trailed kisses. He was still inside of her, not fully hard but not fully soft either. She never thought she'd get the chance to experience him that way. They'd been friends for way too long. Had fearfully chosen to ignore the few windows of opportunity they'd had.

"I wanted this," she admitted quietly.

"So did I."

"I think we could work."

"So do I."

She smiled. "Lots of fireworks tonight, Babe."

"I have to agree with that, too."

She continued to sensually move her hand through his hair. "I can make you happy, right?"

Her insecurity was masked but present. Luke stopped teasing and tickling her flesh with his lips and lifted his head to her. He supposed being with the wrong woman and being involved in public blowouts for far too long gave off false impressions that he was a hard one to please. He wasn't. It was only hard for any woman who had the misfortune of competing with his best friend. Easily the most beautiful, unique, and interesting person he'd ever known.

"You do make me happy. Even when you make me want to put my head through a wall, I never stop being amazed by you."

She rolled her eyes. "Amazed and dizzy. I suppose I'll take it."

He smiled. Rubbed his hand along her body. "And now on top of all that other stuff, I know what it's like to touch you. Trust me, from this point on, I'm the happiest man on earth."

She grinned. "The happiest?"

He nodded. "As long as I know you're happy with me."

"That's a fairly safe bet," she mentioned with a tug on his scruffy chin.

He grimaced as he thought of the rough stubble he'd failed to control over the last few days. "Sorry about this, by the way. I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

She shrugged unaffectedly. "Perfect cure for open pores. Facial jackhammer's sure to keep them cowering and bolted shut."

"Very funny."

Lorelai urged his face up to hers with a lit smile. "Porcupine paramour."

"You like pain, huh?" he asked quietly before connecting his lips to hers in a sweet and tender kiss that slipped smoothly into dirtiness and unsuitable lust.

She broke away some time later and closed her eyes as her breath came back. "For those lips, I'll be as big a masochist as you want me to be."

Luke lifted off of her a bit and gently rocked his hardening length back inside of her. She stared up at him. Rubbed his face with her hands. She'd been without for so incredibly long. And then came Luke. Humble and reserved and a lightning rod in bed. He was satisfying, filling, and knew how to move.

"Ask and you shall receive," she uttered with a smile.

"What?"

"Are you always like this?" she asked him breathily after a deep and soul-touching wind of his shaft.

He smiled with a light blush. Gave her the answer she'd wanted as he worked himself in and out and back in again. "Is that okay?"

"I'll adjust," she answered with sarcasm that sounded real. She was becoming extremely distracted. She reached for him, brought his soft and swollen lips to hers, and proceeded to share a wet and slow kiss with him that compromised her entire mental state.

Their bodies melded together as they moved and made love.

-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Moving along endless railroad tracks, Luke looked around at the encasement of spring green trees. Hands in his pockets, he snapped out of the reverie. He didn't know what was ahead in the distance. Didn't know from where he'd come. Had no knowledge of how he'd even gotten there. It didn't seem to matter. He just kept walking. Continued a journey unknown to him.

The sun was bright and warm. There was a breeze.

As he looked ahead, a figure appeared out of thin air and walked in his direction. He couldn't make out anything other than a moving body so he stared curiously. The person before him moved with a dangerous elegance. Most definitely a woman.

Before sight, came sound. An emphatic ring of laughter. The woman spread her arms and seemed to orchestrate things that didn't belong in her control. Beauty turned beastly as grayness took over. Luke stood his ground to the person who he definitely knew by name.

"Nicole, what are you doing?"

She paused everything. Was in the midst of summoning an overhead tunnel of fierce winds and threatening sparks that stemmed from nothing but outrage.

"Are you a tough guy now, Luke? Don't you dare talk to me in that tone of voice! Do you understand me? I will make your life miserable."

"We broke up! You're not supposed to be here!"

She reached him with a speed no human could possibly have. Luke was startled at seeing her far off one second and in his face, the next.

"You treat me like trash, cheat on me with a prostitute, and then think you can walk away? I'm heartbroken." She laughed. "My heart is broken by a cheating bastard. How pathetic is that?! I'll never let you forget what you did to me. Ever."

Luke swallowed deeply. Tried his hardest not to see truth in her words. He thought of Lorelai. Tried to see himself through her eyes.

"It was a complicated situation, Nicole, but I didn't cheat on you. I'm not that guy."

"You are that guy!"

"No, I'm not."

"You are that guy, you cheater! Your father thinks so, too. If you don't care what I think, I know you care what he thinks. He and I see eye to eye." The smirk she wore turned to dissatisfaction when the immediate look of horror didn't pass over his face as expected. He looked confused, thoughtful. "Did you hear what I said?" she screamed. "Your father is disappointed you turned out to be an unfaithful man! You let him down, Luke!"

He looked around briskly. "Where is Lorelai?"

Nicole's eyes flashed red. Literally. "What did you just say?"

"Lorelai," he said clearly and with impatience. It'd struck him that something had changed. He and Lorelai had become more. Where was she? He couldn't lose her. "Is she okay? Where is she?" He started off in search of her.

"Are you really saying this to me?"

"This isn't about you," he said over his shoulder.

"Come back here."

"Leave me alone, Nicole."

Thunder roared overhead like a mighty freight. She chased him down. Put her mouth as close to his ear as she could get it as she kept up with his pace. "You spineless coward. You're a cheater. That's what you are. You think Lorelai wants you? She doesn't. She'll never love you. She'll never trust you. Once a cheater, always a cheater. You know it, and I know it. I hate you. You hate yourself. And you should!"

Luke shook his head. Flashed back to himself on his back in the hotel room. A strange woman on top of him.

"Lorelai!"

"Lorelai, Lorelai," she mocked.

"Lorelai!"

She laughed and laughed.

Luke stepped off the tracks as he scanned everywhere for the piece of himself it seemed he'd misplaced. Finding no success, he gradually returned to his previous path. He moved quickly along the tracks.

"You're wasting your time," she stated with condescension.

"I don't care."

"Obviously." He stopped walking. She stopped walking. "Finally came to your senses, huh, cheater?"

He ignored her. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That noise."

She raised an arm and summoned more claps of thunder, more whirring winds. Made it so deafening that a person couldn't hear their own thoughts. Luke fixed her with a piercing glare. That delighted her enough that she added in her infamous howl to the disturbing din. "You mean this noise?"

"No."

She stopped the carnival act. "Then what?" she snapped.

In the quieter moment, it was heard suddenly by the both of them. They turned simultaneously to look into the distance.

"A train," Luke noted.

"Well, that's odd," Nicole mentioned flippantly. She stepped off the tracks. "Not exactly how I planned for things to go, but I'll take it." She waved her hand toward Luke in a passing manner. Nothing appeared to happen. Luke proceeded to step off the tracks as well but formed an instant panic when he realized his feet were somehow glued to the ground. He turned that panic to Nicole after trying in vain to un-stick them.

She crossed her arms and smiled. "If only I had popcorn."

"Are you crazy?! Undo this!"

"Undo my heart breaking," she countered calmly. "Oh wait, you can't, can you?"

"Nicole!"

"I trusted you, Luke. And you broke that trust. You deserve this."

"Damn it, Nicole! It's a train, for god's sake!"

She waved him goodbye. Smiled again.

Luke turned eye daggers away from her and started trying to pull himself free. "Come on, come on," he encouraged audibly as he pulled and strained.

"Love the inspiration. You're almost there, by the way. Except…not really."

"Come. On." The train closed in. He squeezed his eyes shut and didn't dare give up. "Oh god, come on, come on…"

"Five…four…three… This certainly beats New Year's."

Luke braced himself for the moment of impact. Braced himself as much as he possibly could. He braced himself, and nothing followed. Not only was there an absence of a bone-shattering blow, but the once loud horn and engine from the approaching train had disappeared completely.

When he opened his eyes, from the way his head was positioned, the first thing he caught sight of was Nicole. She was glaring in the direction of the train. She was not pleased but didn't seem too capable of speech. Luke was surprised she hadn't clapped her hands and instantly fixed whatever mechanical issue caused the train to stop like it had.

He faced forward. Ended up gasping. "What the hell?"

The most beautiful smile he'd ever seen in his life formed on a familiar face. "Hey, Luke."

"Lorelai?"

She winked.

Luke looked around her. Searched for the thousands of pounds of machinery that had vanished into thin air. "What happened to the train?"

"It turned into a Gilmore."

He shook away the confusion of that. "You're a train?" he asked absurdly.

"Not anymore."

"You're not making sense."

She shrugged. "What can I say? I'm partial to grand entrances."

Luke found that he was suddenly able to move his feet. He took notice of that but only turned attention back to Lorelai as if it wasn't life or death a minute ago. "What are you doing here?"

"You called me, remember?"

He nodded. Looked her over and was happy to see that she looked intact. "I was worried when I didn't see you," he admitted.

"I know. I'm here now. It's okay."

He glanced at Nicole. "It was a nightmare without you."

Lorelai glanced at her, too. "I believe it."

"I'm not going to stand for this!" Nicole growled. "He's a cheater, and you're a slut, and I'll make both your lives a living hell. All he's going to do is cheat on you. You'll see. He's a lying, cheating, back-stabbing son of a-"

When vulgarity ceased without warning, Luke looked at Nicole to see that she was only mouthing threats and insults. There wasn't one decibel of sound coming out. He turned back to Lorelai and questioned her with his eyes. She smiled. Gave indication that she was responsible for that.

He laughed. "How'd you-"

"I have unlimited amounts of faith in you, Luke. If I ever get to the place of fairytales, I will have no problem trusting you with my heart. I'm sure your dad would be proud of the man you've become. You believe that, right?"

His laughter had faded as soon as she started speaking to him with a rare graveness. "Yeah, I g-guess I-"

"No, don't guess. You have to know. Like I do."

He took a breath. Thought. "I think he'd be proud," he followed with a weak shrug.

Lorelai smiled. Decided she'd take it. "Hey, what's with the depressing backdrop?" she asked of the devastation that surrounded them.

"One guess," he answered flatly.

She looked to Nicole who didn't seem to know she'd been muted. She continued on with her negativity. "Well, I don't like it, so mind if I brighten things up?"

"Please do."

She flawlessly brought back the picturesque landscape and did an instant override on the weird tornado of destruction that circled over them. Did that and then walked past a defeated Nicole whose power no longer existed. She slid her arm inside Luke's and winked happily at the smile that formed on his lips.

"So, where were you going?"

"No idea, honestly." They continued where Luke had left off on his solo journey.

"Hm, well, that seems like the perfect place for two."

"Sounds cheesy, but okay."

"How long until we get there?"

"To the place that's completely unknown by me?"

"Mmhm."

"I'll have to get back to you on that one."

"Okay. Mind if I sing the whole way?"

"I mind very much."

"All the old paintings on the tomb, they do the sand dance dontcha know! If you move too quick –oh way oh—they fallin' down like a domino!"

"Lorelai."

"All the bazaar men by the Nile; they got the money on a bet!"

"Lorelai."

"Gold crocodiles—oh way oh—they snap their teeth on a your cigarette! Foreign types with their hookah pipes say waaaay ohhhh waaaay ohhhhhhhh waaaaaay ohhhh waaay ohhhhhhhh! Walk like an Egyptian…" And then she did.

"For the love of god, Lorelai."

The outdoors that stretched out before them grew fainter until it disappeared altogether. Luke slowly opened his eyes. He remembered where he was. Lorelai's bedroom. Lorelai's bed. The someone that was gently rubbing the side of his face was Lorelai. It was too dark to see her, but he could smell her. The scent of her perfume was everywhere. To be smelling it in the middle of the night was the most surreal feeling of his whole life. He took a moment to conclude how everything weird that he'd just experienced had all been a part of a dream.

He extended his hand to her hip beneath the covers to let her know he was awake.

"You okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah."

"You were talking in your sleep."

"I was?"

"Nightmares during your first sleepover? That can't be a good sign," she joked.

"What was I saying?"

"Lorelai."

He recalled the railroad tracks. Recalled the annoying song she was singing. "Oh."

"'Oh' good or 'oh' bad?"

He smiled. "Good."

She smiled, too. "Okay, we'll leave it at that." She moved in and kissed his lips softly. "Go back to sleep." She turned and moved away a little to give him room. He pulled her back. So much for her thinking men preferred their space when they slept. She laughed softly as he wrapped her tight.

"I'm really glad we're doing this," he whispered to her.

"Me, too."

He sighed in peace. "Okay, back to sleep."

"My suggestion first. Sticks tongue out and narrates it because Luke can't see it."

"Jeez."

He rolled his eyes. Acknowledged to himself how those were the types of disagreements he didn't mind in the middle of the night. And definitely the woman he didn't mind having them with. With her feet sliding up and down his leg and her distaste for the socks that still adorned her feet, he thought of her as the sock woman right then. He was still a long ways from finding fault with them. For all he cared, she could be his sock woman for the rest of their lives together.

He began to drift off. Hoped she'd follow him back into his dreams. Hoped she'd be there with him for as long as it took to fight off his deepest disappointments for good. Dream Nicole only gave voice to his own sadistic admonishments over mistakes made. Fact was, he was a good man. Lorelai was right. He was a good man who had earned the respect of a good woman.

Eventually, he'd let himself off the hook. Eventually, his dreams would feature only the woman who took up a greater portion of his heart with each day he spent with her. Eventually, all the frazzled pieces of his mind would find settlement. Eventually, he'd feel deserving of only happiness. Eventually.

-The End-

I hope you enjoyed that! Review if you like & tell me what you think. All reviews welcome! :)